Juventus defender Leonardo Bonucci has hit out at suggestions he could leave the club at the end of the season after insisting if he wanted out he would forced a move away last summer.
Bonucci, 29, is widely regarded as one of the best centre-backs in Europe and has already revealed he turned down the chance to join Pep Guardiola at Manchester City last summer.
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte also wants to reunite with the Italy international this summer and suitors were given some encouragement in their pursuit of Bonucci after Max Allegri dropped the defender for their Champions League encounter with Porto after a bust up with the Juventus manager.
However, Bonucci is adamant there are no problems and he was more likely to leave Juventus last summer than he is now.
“It’s all the same as before, I continue to fight for Juve and when needed can contribute with a goal,” Bonucci told Sky Italia, via Football Italia. “I am owned by the club, I have a contract with Juve to 2021 and feel important for the team, so I don’t see why there has to be a problem.
“If I wanted to leave Juventus, I would’ve pushed to do it last year, as I had important offers over the summer and had already started studying English. I am important to the team, but as we saw in Porto, nobody is indispensable.
“Nobody must feel comfortable here, as we need to give 100 per cent in every training session to earn our place. I’d like to be a coach in the future and have Allegri’s problems of choosing between all these strong defenders.”
Bonucci put pen to paper on a new long-term deal with Juventus back in December and it would likely require a world record fee for a defender for the Old Lady to part ways with the Italian.
Only Bruno Alves (180) and Nicolas Burdisso (161) have completed more long balls of outfielders than Bonucci (151) in Serie A this season.
For more stats on Leonardo Bonucci, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
