Manchester City are ready to make a final attempt to sign Real Madrid defender Pepe, the Daily Mail reports.

New City boss Manuel Pellegrini was anxious to buy a centre-back even before losing Matija Nastasic for the first month of the new campaign with an ankle injury and then seeing his side concede eight goals in their last three pre-season games.

Pepe has always been Pellegrini’s first-choice but Real rejected a £15m offer for the Portugal international last month and insist they want him to stay at the Bernabeu.

City are set to mount another bid before they kick off the new season at home to Newcastle on Monday and hope that an improved offer in excess of £20m for a player who turned 30 in February may convince Real to change their mind.

Reports in Spain  claimed that City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain has flown to Madrid to try and broker a deal. However, if the Spaniards refuse to negotiate then he will accept defeat and look elsewhere.

Despite spending £90million on new players this summer, City have not signed any defenders. 
They have been linked with Atletico Madrid’s Martin Demichelis and Schalke defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos among others, and have so far expressed little interest in the possibility of bringing in Paolo Cannavaro from Napoli.