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Manchester City have had a £45 million bid for defender Jules Koundé turned down by Sevilla.
Pep Guardiola’s side are looking for alternatives are talks to sign Kalidou Koulibaly was Napoli ended in deadlock.
The Europa League winners have indicated that they are prepared to sell Koundé for less than his release clause, which is reported to be £82.5 million, but believe that City’s first offer under-values the central defender.
There have been suggestions that Nicolas Otamendi could be included as part of the makeweight in any deal.
City have already signed Nathan Aké from Bournemouth this summer, but Guardiola wants to add one more centre-back to his squad, preferably one who is right-footed.
John Stones partnered Aké at the heart of the City defence in their 3 – 1 win against Wolves at Molineux on Monday night, but he had some shaky moments in the second-half, and has yet to convince his manager he can play consistently at the highest level.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.