Manchester City defender Ko Itakura wants to stay at Schalke next season, but they need to raise the funds by selling players first.
That’s according to WAZ, who say that the German side do not have the money to match the £5.5m purchase clause in Itakura’s current loan deal.
The newspaper explains that Schalke are ‘desperate’ to sign Itakura on a permanent basis and can do so if they pay the purchase option in his loan deal, which activated when they secured promotion to the Bundesliga.
Everyone at the club, including the directors, agree that they must ‘scrape every penny together’ they can to keep the 25-year-old beyond the end of this season.
However, while the fee is around €5.5m, it is not fixed as the ‘complex contract’ that Schalke struck with Manchester City means the fee is fixed in pounds, not Euros.
That means the current exchange rate will determine how much Itakura will cost, and while the price is currently €5.5m, it could increase should the exchange rates change.
That’s a lot of money for the ‘financially struggling Schalke’, particularly as they are set to sign three players courtesy of obligations to buy in their deals.
Those deals will leave little left for further business, and so the club have to look towards sales to bolster the coffers.
At the top of the list are Ozan Kabak and Amine Harit, whose high base salaries make them poor fit for the planned squad in the Bundesliga anyway.
There are currently no suitors for them, though, and so Schalke have to look elsewhere, and the top candidate for a sale is defender Malick Thiaw, who is being courted by AC Milan.
Schalke need to get that potential deal or exits for Kabak and Harit over the line first, however, before they can move to sign Itakura from Manchester City on a permanent basis.
