Borussia Dortmund will not break their wage structure to sign Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko.

The Daily Mail says Dortmund have slammed the door on his chances of being a long-term replacement for Robert Lewandowski.

To Dzeko's dismay, they are looking for a younger, cheaper candidate on wages considerably less than his current £130,000 a week.

Dortmund have put a £15million ceiling on any transfer fee - £10million less than City want for Dzeko - and are also mindful that the former Wolfsburg marksman turns 27 a week on Sunday.

If that wasn't enough to put them off, they flatly refuse even to consider personal terms that would wreck their pay structure and risk alienating key players like Mario Goetze and Marco Reus, who are on barely half as much.