Premier League champions Manchester City have reportedly rejected a € 15 million bid for Spanish striker Alvaro Negredo from Spanish champions Atletico Madrid.
The offer, according to City, does not match their valuation of the striker whom they signed just last season from Sevilla for almost £ 20 million.
The capital side is looking at life beyond David Villa, who has already signed for the new Major League Soccer side New York City FC, which is owned jointly by City and the New York Yankees as well as Diego Costa who is almost certain to make the move to the Premier League with Chelsea.
They have earmarked the former Real Madrid hit man as their number one striker priority and are expected to return with an improved bid for the player who was a massive hit in his first season in English football before trailing off towards the end of last season.
It has been reported that the Spanish international is not in the best of terms with Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini who only sees him as a third choice striker behind Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko, thereby limiting his first team opportunities.
City are reportedly holding out for a fee in the region of € 30 million but it would be interesting to see if Atletico make such an offer despite making a huge profit from the potential sale of Diego Costa.
Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone is a huge fan of powerful striker and pushed the club to make a bid for him last season as well but Negredo snubbed them in favor of Manchester City. However, with Atletico in red hot form and expected to improve next time around as well, Negredo might just be interested in making the move to Madrid this time around though.