Football writing at its best from BBC sport

Manchester City have walked away from a proposed deal for Leicester City's Riyad Mahrez after refusing to sanction a transfer package that would have cost £95m.

City do not view themselves as having made an offer after Leicester City came to them with a proposal that would have also included a player.

Conversations took place to ascertain Leicester's value of Mahraz - a number of which took place - and City's interest pre-dates emergence of their interest in the Algerian interest in 26-year-old Mahrez.

City had previously made it clear that they were not willing to spend, however the package was made up, more than £60m.

The difference in valuation was so big that there was no chance of agreement being reached, leaving City to walk away from the deal.

City were not interested in Mahrez simply because Leroy Sane was ruled out for seven weeks with the injury sustained in Sunday's FA Cup win at Cardiff City.

The club had a long-standing desire to bring in an attacking player next summer. They were obviously interested in Alexis Sanchez before he went to Manchester United but felt that was too expensive and have now reached the same conclusion with Mahrez.

Posted By: jAC on January 31st 2018 at 17:26:14

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