Juventus' Leonardo Bonucci Reveals Why it Was Easy to Reject Man Utd's Advances Over the Summer
Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci has revealed that he was subject to advances from Manchester United over the summer, but he decided to turn down the Premier League side to return "home" to Turin.
With Bonucci unhappy at AC Milan after just one season and the Red Devils on the hunt for a new centre back, the two parties sounded each other out during the summer transfer window. But once Juventus came calling there was nothing left to discuss for the Italian.
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“Basically there have been some possibilities both with Manchester City and with Manchester United," Bonucci told The Telegraph ahead of Juve's Champions League clash against United.
"With Manchester City when I received that offer [in 2016] I actually talked to the club, I talked to Juventus and we decided that it was good for me to stay and to keep on winning with Juventus.
"And this year when I was told there was a possibility to go back home, to come back to Juventus I just stopped listening to any other offers and I decided to come back here.”
Asked to clarify if United did make a move to sign him this summer, he said: "Yes."
But when asked if the Red Devils had any chance of securing his signature once Juventus approached the negotiating table, he added: “No. I feel at home.
“Here I really do my best, I just push myself to the maximum and that’s something at Milan I really didn’t manage, I didn’t succeed to achieve and that was probably because in my heart I had already made the decision that I wanted to go back home.
“The decision was not made until June but it’s true that I had this feeling inside me. So when my agent told me there was a tangible opportunity to go back I just stopped listening to anyone telling me what to do, I stopped listening to any kind of suggestion and I just said ‘OK, let’s go home’.”
Bonucci, 31, returned to Turin after just a year in Milan as part of the deal which saw Mattia Caldara head in the opposite direction, with the Italy international penning a five-year deal with Juventus.
