Fabrizio Romano has explained why Manchester City did not sign Portuguese left-back Nuno Mendes last month.

Nuno Mendes, who is one of the most exciting defensive prospects of his generation, was linked with a move to Manchester City in the summer transfer window.

He was placed on the market on deadline day by the Portuguese side, leaving Manchester United, Manchester City and Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG) all to go head-to-head for his services.

It was, however, PSG that completed a deal for him in the dying hours of the window, agreeing a loan with an option to buy next summer for a fee of 40 million euros.

As per the reliable Fabrizio Romano, it has emerged that Manchester City had already enquired about the defender earlier in the summer, and were very interested.

Romano has claimed that City made a proposal to sign Mendes permanently back in June, but they opted against pursuing a move for him after learning Sporting’s asking price for the player.

He said on The Here We Go Podcast: “It’s really important to say about Manchester City because they wanted Nuno Mendes. They really wanted Nuno Mendes. They had the chance of signing this player on deadline day because his agent Miguel Pinho was talking for a long time with Man City, Paris Saint-Germain and with Manchester United.

“Manchester United were not looking at this option because they have Telles and they have Luke Shaw so they are very happy with their left-backs. But Manchester City had a serious interest in this player, but they wanted to pay for a different value of Nuno Mendes.

“It was June, and they were discussing about an opening proposal around €20m (£17.2m) but Sporting said ‘no’ to this kind of value. They wanted around €40m (£34.5m) for Nuno Mendes, and they decided, for Manchester City, ‘ok, no, this summer we are not signing the player. Let’s see in the future, we will follow him for the future.’”

Here’s what some City fans had to say about this Fabrizio Romano update on Twitter…

Embarrassing
— Prof. (@oilszn) September 9, 2021

Are we actually broke or something
— Cyrus 🙇🏻‍♂️ (@SilkyCyrus_74) September 9, 2021

We just don't want to overpay for an unproven youngster
— James Mccann (@JamesMc12742424) September 9, 2021

Why would we pay 50m for an unproven young player, would have been a gamble but PSG got a better deal.
— Riszuan (@riszuan17) September 9, 2021

The quicker we move away from news about the transfer window, the better we feel as fans. Txiki has blood on his hands.
— STERLINGSZN (@RazzSterlingFC) September 9, 2021