Sevilla have been urged to ‘pay now’ for defender Loïc Badé as he continues to shine following a move from Nottingham Forest in the January transfer window.
Journalist Fernando Ruiz covers the player for Estadio Deportivo, insisting the Spanish side should be paying whatever it takes to sign the Frenchman on a permanent basis as soon as they can.
He explains that the centre back ‘continues to grow’ at Sevilla this season after arriving on loan in January after an unsuccessful stint at Nottingham Forest in the first half of the campaign.
They signed him on loan from Rennes in the summer but failed to hand him a single appearance, leading to that deal being cut short.
He soon joined Sevilla and has been impressing ever since, so much so that he now makes a €12m option to sign him permanently look ‘cheap’.
Ruiz says he ‘can’t explain’ why Nottingham Forest didn’t hand the defender a single minute this season, an opinion that was shared by director of football Monchi, who ‘saw the opportunity’ and took it in January.
Since then, Badé has done nothing but impress, first under Jorge Sampaoli and even under his successor José Luis Mendilibar.
His best game yet came in the weekend’s win over relegation rivals Valencia, a game in which he gave a ‘master class’ of everything that is asked of a central defender and even got himself on the scoresheet.
That display only further emphasised the need to sign him permanently, something Sevilla can do for €12m thanks to a clause in his loan deal.
They should ‘pay those millions’ as soon as they can according to Ruiz, who insists the Spanish side must ensure Badé ‘cannot escape’ as that clause ‘will be cheap tomorrow’ and even more so by the summer.
As far as he’s concerned signing the defender in January was a masterstroke on many parts, with his performances raising further questions over why he wasn’t given a sniff of a chance during his time at Nottingham Forest.
