Before going through today’s claims it’s worth having a brief recap of where we are with the Alberto Costa mini-saga.
Sporting CP have been trying to sign the right-back from Vitória de Guimarães, but Brighton & Hove Albion threw a spanner in the works by offering more than what the Lisbon based club wanted to pay.
Brighton’s offer stands at €12m plus a potential further €2m in bonus payments, and there’s been some claims the Seagulls would be prepared to leave the 21-year-old in Portugal until the summer.
Sporting are offering a little less and their payment terms aren’t as good as Brighton’s. Throughout the Portuguese media have been insisting Alberto Costa only wants a move to Sporting because he feels he can progress best there, O Jogo have been especially confident about that.
However, the weekend saw Juventus move into the picture, with the player thought to be tempted by the Turin club, and that leads us to where we are now.
Monday’s edition of O Jogo reports Juventus are preparing an offer higher than that submitted by Brighton. There’s not a great need to do that, given the Premier League club’s bid was acceptable to Vitória de Guimarães.
Over at A Bola, their Monday edition says Juventus are preparing their official offer and whilst they initially planned to match Brighton’s they’re now set to go higher.
Record are more negative on Juventus, reporting there’s been no direct between them and Vitória de Guimarães. They sound confident on behalf of Sporting, insisting the player still only wants to join them and ‘rules out the possibility of Juve’.
Over in Italy, Corriere dello Sport cover Juventus interest and say an approach is being made but it’s contingent on Alberto Costa accepting low wages.
Monday’s Gazzetta dello Sport even has the youngster taking up part of their front page and states a €12-13m deal is ‘almost there’ and the player would be part of a ‘revolution’ at Juventus.
This one continues to be complicated.
