Sporting are used to having clubs interested in their players, indeed they seem to actively encourage it. It’s the same with Benfica and Porto, the Portuguese sport press at times resembles a footballer meat market.
However, right now there’s ‘alarm’ because West Brom want William Carvalho and Juventus want Adrien Silva. The latter almost moved to Leicester City during the summer transfer window, and made a public statement saying he was looking forward to joining Claudio Ranieri’s men, but Sporting pulled the plug on a move.
Leicester City have missed out on the player, and with Juventus now being linked a potential switch to the Foxes looks gone. To be honest, Juventus interest in Adrien would be very surprising, not because he isn’t good enough, he may well be, but because Juve wouldn’t bend to Sporting’s financial demands.
Adrien could see his career out at Sporting, always rueing his missed Leicester move, but Carvalho probably won’t. A Bola say the English press are reporting West Brom a readying a big offer of €30m, but those claims actually came from Record, another Portuguese newspaper. Not wanting to give credit to their rival newspaper, A Bola do make it clear that Carvalho is protected by a €45m clause, just like Record did.
Sporting repeatedly make public noises about not selling Carvalho for less than his clause, but they probably would. The key for a deal with Sporting is a big flat fee and the money upfront, anything else usually offends them. Assuming the €30m offer from West Brom arrives, and is rejected, then trying again at €35m would probably be worth it, but that would have to be heavily weighted upfront.
West Brom may get away with paying €30m in one go and €5m related to bonuses, but any further spreading out on the finances probably wouldn’t work.
Leicester City themselves have previously been linked with Carvalho, as have around a third of Premier League clubs.
