Despite being widely announced as being one of Inter’s first signings of the summer, Lucien Agoumé remains a Sochaux player, for now.
Already agreeing terms with the Serie A side and with the two clubs still working on the structure in which the transfer fee will be paid, the young midfielder is intent on joining the Italians, who scouted him ‘thoroughly’ last year and showed their strong interest in his services early on.
This is what the player’s agent, Djibril Niang, told L’Est Republicain on Monday, confirming in the process that his client also has offers from Arsenal and Manchester City.
He said, after confirming the fee was €4.5m without bonuses: “I think it will get done. There were two other solutions with Arsenal and Manchester City, who have positioned them and are waiting, but they aren’t the player’s priority.
“We could have done things a lot quicker with those clubs, but, once again, we worked with what Lucien wanted.”
One of the main ideas behind the transfer, at least from the agent’s and Agoumé’s part, was to find a solution that helped both the player and Sochaux themselves, who are counting on this transfer to balance their books.
As he puts it, they ‘didn’t work for the club’, but the 17-year-old wanted to help them.
Manchester City and Arsenal’s offers are still there, it seems, and the only way Agoumé could join them is if, through seemingly catastrophic circumstances, the deal with Inter fell through.
There’s still hope, but it’s as minimal as it comes right now.
