Manchester City's chief operating officer Omar Berrada has denied reports claiming that the Citizens attempted to sign Napoli's Kalidou Koulibaly during the transfer window.
Having established a reputation as one of the leading centre-backs in Europe, Koulibaly was persistently linked with a switch to the Etihad during the summer months.
However, Berrada has since revealed that the Premier League giants made no effort to strike a deal for the Senegal international, although Koulibaly was on City's radar for a little while.
"The truth is we never were in negotiations with his club at all about him," Berrada told The Athletic. "It was very interesting to see the amount of noise that was coming out from certain media outlets and social media.
"I smiled because there were certain instances where people were reporting that the deal was agreed, done, about to happen, he was going to be announced in a few days, when we were never in touch at all with Napoli about him.
"He's definitely a top, top player so some consideration was given to him, but really within some parameters that were very clear to us — and those parameters never came into play so he was never really considered in that sense."
Pep Guardiola's side managed to shore up their defence with the acquisitions of Nathan Ake from Bournemouth and Ruben Dias from Benfica, with Nicolas Otamendi heading in the other direction in the latter deal.
Ben Knapton
