If you were Pep Guardiola, how much would you be ready to expense to get Bonnuci? The Italian international has been a target for the Spanish manager since last year and seeing how Stones have not been up to the task this season, he might be ready to spend more to get him, the question is, how much is he ready to spend?

Lowest in that list, anything higher is a risk, consider his age.

Juven defence is good as a whole and an unit, I think

@tuan_jinn I don't disagree with you but it would be fair to say Bonuci might still just be one of the very best in Europe despite his age. Also, he fit Pep style of play great because he is good at passing the ball, if Manchester City does want him, they will have to pay more than what PSG paid for Davide Luiz for sure. I agree if he does pay more than 40M or 50M for him, it become a bit desperate, but I think Pep will be pretty desperate to upgrade his team, for what is of the risk, Manchester City have so many ressource its hard to think they couldn't afford it. :S

Manchester City wants to buy that young goaly from AC Milan, they will spend alot of £££ to get him.

You can buy all the world-class defenders you want if you're Man City, but coaching defense has never been Guardiola's forte nor his priority. His teams will always contain a leaky defense. It was just easier to mask when you had Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets keeping 70+% possession, and when you had Neuer, Lahm, Boateng, Martinez, Alaba, and Alonso guarding your defense.

Pep's defense at City isn't at fault because of lack of individual talent... it's at fault because of lack of cohesiveness. A good defensive unit will make every defender in it look like they are world-class. Juventus probably have the best defensive unit in the world. Real Madrid also have a very good defensive unit, but they rely more on individual defensive talent.

I think a good example would be Pique after Puyol got injured/retired. Pique is not a good individual defender, but the defensive unit he was in with Puyol, Abidal, and Alves (Capdevila, Puyol, and Ramos in Spain) made him look world-class. But without a good defensive unit, he looks exposed. Put him in Juventus, and he'll look amazing again (b'cuz Juventus are solid as a defensive unit). You can probably make the same argument with John Stones, who has been, unfortunately, left exposed this season.

Currently, Pep has a poor defensive unit. He makes them press insanely high, but they are not accustomed to these kinds of tactics. He needs to get players who are used to playing his style of "defense" or possess the skill sets required to succeed in that system. I don't think buying a world-class defender like Bonucci will solve that problem because that's not the style of defense Bonucci is accustomed to playing. Neither Juventus nor Italy play a heavy-possession based game like Guardiola's teams.

As far as I'm concerned, Barcelona/Bayern/City under Guardiola and Villarreal have been the only teams to play that brand of football. So if Guardiola wants to solve his defense issues through transfers, he'll have to look for defenders with a specific set of skills.

I would not even consider spending anything more than 40-45.

I mean, for one, I think he's the lesser of the two with Chiellini being the better defender. I know many rate him quite high, but I haven't seen enough of him to form a good opinion. However, he is 29 years old. He's got only 3-4 years at best left in the top. These days defenders are required to be very athletic also given how many teams require them to be part of the attack, at least part of the build-up.

Given that you won't get more than 3-4 years of top quality from him, and the fact that he's a defender, paying anything more than 45 would be too high. It's not like you'll ever get your money back by selling him as his value will drop considerably in the coming years due to his age. I mean, I know that Barca paid 20 millions for Mathieu at 32, who is not even one fifth of the defender that is Bonucci - but not many clubs out there would've agreed to such a fee.

Won't pay more than 40M

If they pay 50M for Stones, 60M for Bonnuci wouldn't be a problem

@Dynastian I get what you mean but I think good defender even if there is no cohesion in the defense, will alway be an upgrade to a team, if it wasn't the case, a manager could just go into the young academy, get four player who played nearly all their life together and put them in his team (I know this is exagerated a bit but you get the idea). It sad to say but I think that now, Pep does need to rely on individual defensive talent as you said yourself that building good cohesion between his defense kind of his weakpoint. Otherwise, I fully agree with you.

@Amerr30 I also think Chielini is better at defending but for some reason, I also believe Bonucci to be a bit better at passing and at building up. I agree with you but I think that with the kind of ressource Pep have and the fact buying Bonucci might give him a better chance to win the league in those 3 to 4 year, then he might chose to take the risk. At the end of the day, it might not be worth it. :S

If I were Pep I would definitely purchase the best CB in the EPL for £60M and its Virgil Van Dijk (Age 25) rather than Bonucci (Age 29 who will be 30 soon). Man City have no top class fullbacks so again if I were Pep I would purchase Van Dijk and play 3 at the back and play attacking football. Kolarov, Sagna, Clichy and Zabaleta are too old and not good enough anymore.

.....................(New Goal keeper)...................

Otamendi .............Kompany............Van Dijk

Surely if Man City buy a new goalkeeper as well then their defence will be one of the best.

A good defensive unit will make every defender in it look like they are world-class. Juventus probably have the best defensive unit in the world. Real Madrid also have a very good defensive unit, but they rely more on individual defensive talent.
I think a good example would be Pique after Puyol got injured/retired. Pique is not a good individual defender, but the defensive unit he was in with Puyol, Abidal, and Alves (Capdevila, Puyol, and Ramos in Spain) made him look world-class. But without a good defensive unit, he looks exposed. Put him in Juventus, and he'll look amazing again (b'cuz Juventus are solid as a defensive unit). You can probably make the same argument with John Stones, who has been, unfortunately, left exposed this season.

That's a very flawed argument.
Every single good team does work as a unit and when you take away someone's role the whole team has more holes.

Juventus is a good defensive unit because they have good players who know how to play defense, if you put some 17 year old kid in Juventus they will also have holes because he is not good enough to play yet at that level regardless of the rest of the team.

Pique is a good defender but every good defender needs his own partner, Vidic/Ferdinand were a good unit as well but they both individually were great players as well, so is Pique.
You don't get to play in the big teams if you don't know how to play, you can't sell yourself if you're only good when others are good, it doesn't work that way because teams see talent and judge by what a player can do.

Every single defender that is good makes a good defending unit and together they play great.

Pep Guardiola is exposed as a coach/manager because he got all the glory in Barcelona that doesn't really mind who is their coach when they had Xavi/Iniesta in their peak + others, the only person that looked good there but wasn't as good is not Pique but Pep Guardiola himself.

So you're very wrong by putting down Pique as a player, or Stones for that matter, they are both world class players without any doubts.
It's Pep that is overrated.

@Golazo Pique, I can agree, Stones however is too young in my opinion and make yet too many mistake to be considered world class. He is still a decent player IMO. Here, I let everyone make their own judgement on Stones themselve.

His worse:

VS

His best:

Stones world class player

in what terms is he world class?

@Emobot7 My point is that you can't have a good defensive unit if it consists of bad players, Stones is one of the biggest talents he signed for almost 50 mil £ so he will grow in time, overall it's the best buy M. City have done in the past 2 years, we are looking at the future captain of Man City probably.

in what terms is he world class?

In terms of, you wish you had him in your team just like everybody else in the Premier League.

@Golazo Actually no, not everyone in the PL would like to have him in their team, the reason why he was so in demand is because of his pedigree and his age. I agree he is still a good prospect but I don't think he is every team dream player. I believe Kos and Mustafi for example are both better than him, so I don't think Arsenal fan should really be envious of city in term of CB.

@Emobot7 Pretty sure every top team in PL wanted him if they could sign him.
But hey, Arsenal got Mustafi for what 38 mil £ ? He's far worse than Stones trust me, every real Arsenal fan is envious of Man City getting Stones.

Look at this, Stones is already one of the best center backs in the league:

http://www.squawka.com/news/david-luiz-vs-vertonghen-vs-matip-vs-stones-vs-rojo-vs-mustafi-whos-the-top-sixs-best-ball-playing-cb/929645#25kP1mHCBbqrhEKu.97

Right after Vertonghen comes Stones.

Mustafi has the worst pass percentage (81%), second worst take-ones (74%), and the verdict is that he is the worst of the top centre backs.

"He gives the ball away too much with his scattergun forward passing."

All that for almost 40 mil £? Yea, this is why Arsenal won't be seeing any Champions league next season.

Just to add:

http://www.squawka.com/news/10-of-the-best-ball-playing-centre-backs-in-football/638760#I0hayU5YZvbv6WQv.97

Stones in on the list of the top 10 best ball playing center backs in football.
"John Stones has an 89% pass accuracy in the Premier League this season.
English defenders are generally not known for their footballing ability, but Stones is a rare exception. As confident on the ball as any English player, let alone defender, he regularly surges out of defence with the ball. At 21 years of age he has the chance to establish himself as a true force in world football."

@Golazo Mate, its easy to take stat and make them say what you want, check their rating on whoscored.com and their defensif rating. Stone is a good player on the ball but Mustafi in my opinion is much better without it. Passing isn't the main skill of a defender after all. Its winning the ball back. :P

https://www.whoscored.com/Players/101374/Show/John-Stones
https://www.whoscored.com/Players/80921/Show/Shkodran-Mustafi

In terms of, you wish you had him in your team just like everybody else in the Premier League