Former Manchester City assistant coach Mark Bowen has confirmed their attempt to sign Juventus goalkeeper Gigi Buffon.

Bowen was at City when Shiekh Mansour bought the club and has detailed how their transfer policy was ripped up at the time.

He recalled to Goal: "We played golf and after each stroke Mark's (Hughes, City's then manager) phone rang. At one point, he turned to me and said, 'We have five bids of between £30 million and £35 million out there'.

"Robinho was one, Franck Ribéry was one, (Dimitar) Berbatov was one, and I can not remember the rest."

Bowen reveals that he, Hughes and City's former CEO Garry Cook traveled to Turin to try to recruit Juventus goalkeeper Buffon.

"We arrived at the airport and went up to the business lounge. Buffon was not there, but we sat and talked to his two agents, and it was astronomical numbers. Then we sat on the plane and went back."