Report: Man City still want to acquire Leonardo Bonucci, but Juve ain’t selling

There will be a time where Juventus will have to make some very tough yet very important decisions when it comes to how its defense is constructed. Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini are getting closer and closer to the days where they are not the best at their position, while at the same time Matthijs de Ligt and Merih Demiral are brimming with so much potential it’s hard to wrap your head around sometimes.

Those decisions don’t seem like they’re coming just yet, though.

According to Goal Italia’s Romeo Agresti, Manchester City is still very much interested in trying to lure Bonucci to the English Premier League. The problem for Pep Guardiola and the rest of the Manchester City front office who make these kinds of transfer transaction is that, according to Agresti, Juventus has absolutely no interest in allowing Bonucci to leave this summer. And on top of that, it’s not exactly like Bonucci has expressed any kind of desire to leave Juventus.

So, as Agresti said on Twitter: “There is NO chance the defender leaves.”

Not that this should really be a surprise based on how Bonucci has been able to turn his second stint at Juventus around through the first two-thirds or so of the season before the coronavirus suspension came down. And it’s especially impressive when you consider that no player on Juventus’ roster has played more minutes than Bonucci has this season.

A lot of that has had to do with the fact that Juve’s depth in the center of the defense has been tested for much of the season due to knee injuries to both Chiellini and Demiral. He has had the brunt of the leadership responsibility at the back with Chiellini out for virtually the entire season up until the last few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic suspended play.

This is a very different kind of situation as compared to about 12 months earlier when Bonucci’s form was all over the place after coming back to Juve following a season of less-than impressive performances with Milan.

Bonucci’s standing at Juventus is about as secure as its been ever since he came back, and that is both reflected in his play and just how important he’s become to the team’s overall success once again. There’s really no reason to sell him a little less than a year after it looked like de Ligt could be rolling in to potentially take his job at some point in the 2019-20 season.