£30million star confirms opportunity to seal Manchester United transfer, explains why it was an easy decision to turn them down

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Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci has discussed transfer rumours linking him with Manchester United in the summer and confirmed there was some opportunity to move to Old Trafford.

However, the Italy international suggests it was a pretty easy decision to turn them down once he was offered the chance to move back to Juventus after a difficult season at AC Milan.

Speaking ahead of tomorrow evening’s big game, Bonucci simply said he jumped at the chance to return ‘home’ and stopped listening to any other potential moves once it became clear a move back to Turin was possible.

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‘Basically there have been some possibilities both with Manchester City and with Manchester United,’ he told the Telegraph.

‘Yes (there was an offer to join United at the end of last season),’ he added. ‘No,’ he said when asked if there was any chance of him choosing them over Juventus.

He added: ‘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.

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‘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 would no doubt have been a superb signing for Jose Mourinho’s side, with the Express linking them with an interest in the £30million-rated centre-back in the summer.

As noted by Yahoo Sport, the Red Devils were also after Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld as it was well known the club chased a top class defensive purchase.

In the end, no new centre-back came and United have struggled, and will now unfortunately have to break down a Bonucci-led Juventus defence on Tuesday night when the two teams meet in the Champions League.

This will be no easy task for a United side who have generally looked below-par in attack for much of this season so far.

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