Athletic Bilbao's Aymeric Laporte 'to study future offers'

Athletic Bilbao centre-back Aymeric Laporte has revealed that he "will study" any "new proposals" that might arrive after turning down a move to Manchester City before the start of the 2016-17 campaign.

The 22-year-old was strongly linked with Man City in the summer, but ultimately rejected the interest from the Premier League outfit to sign a new long-term deal at Bilbao.

Laporte, however, who now has a £55.5m buy-out clause in a contract that runs until June 2020, has refused to rule out a future move away from San Mames.

"You have to think about offers and, if new proposals come along, I will study them," El Correo quotes Laporte as saying. "It would have been a very good move, not just for me but for any player, but Athletic's philosophy is very special."

Laporte, who is still in the middle of an international tug-of-war between France and Spain, is fast closing on 200 first-team appearances for his Basque outfit.