Wednesday was a bit of a strange day for Aston Villa who, in the end, had decided to get rid of Jordan Veretout, a player who had made it extremely clear he had no desire to play Championship football.
The club who had decided to take him on was Saint-Etienne, the very same one who gave him a season long tryout last year.
It was all going well, with a medical scheduled for the soon to be ex-Aston Villa midfielder, but then Fiorentina turned up, and everything went pear shaped for the Ligue 1 side.
L’Equipe on Thursday have a rundown of what actually happened, and it’s quite the story.
Aston Villa and Saint-Etienne had come to an agreement, one that saw Dr Tony Xia recoup just under half of the fee his club invested in the Frenchman in the first place, and the player himself was ready to return to France, seduced by what their new manager had to say.
However, with Veretout still in Birmingham, Fiorentina swooped in out of nowhere, offering €7m for the 24-year-old, which trumped the €4.5m Les Verts were prepared to pay, as well as a €150k/month contract to the player.
Of course, Aston Villa accepted the offer, and now it’s entirely down to the player, who is said to be currently ‘reflecting’ on his future, with the Serie A side the clear favourites at this stage.
In Italy, however, the story is a bit different.
Corriere Fiorentino appear to be one step ahead of their French counterparts, claiming Veretout has already agreed to and will sign a five-year deal with Fiorentina, while Gazzetta dello Sport perhaps jump the gun a little bit and say the contract is already signed.
It’s a very messy situation, but the general feeling here is that Aston Villa are about to pocket €7m for a player who doesn’t want to be there, and Saint-Etienne, unfortunately, are about to miss out on the midfielder they really wanted.
The transfer window can be an ugly place, that’s for sure.
