Remember those days, about a year or so ago, when transfer fees were reasonable?
Then Paris Saint-Germain came along with their €222m offer for Neymar and everyone now believes they’re entitled to all the money in the world for their star players.
At the same time, why wouldn’t they? But when a club like Lazio feeds the likes of Il Tempo and Il Messaggero they won’t be listening to offers below €150m for Sergej Milinkovic-Savic as the likes of Manchester United are linked with him, it’s hard to believe.
After all, this is a club that was so strapped for cash they had to buy former Manchester City striker Felipe Caicedo in the summer to back up Ciro Immobile.
Still, with all the attention Milinkovic-Savic’s performances are getting, you cannot blame Lazio for trying to act tough.
Il Tempo are the ones reporting that with rumours of a ‘phantom €200m offer’ (as good as he is, who would pay that?), Claudio Lotito isn’t ready to sit down with anyone barring an ‘unreasonable’ bid (minimum €150m).
Even if Manchester United were interested, and reports suggest José Mourinho very much is, there’s no chance they would spend that much on a midfielder, especially with so many other areas in the squad needing work.
If it was €70-80m, we’d believe it. €100m? At a push. But €150m+? Nope.
If Lazio are serious about this, then good for them, but our gut feeling is that as soon as the Red Devils or someone else comes along with an €80m bid, they’ll jump at it.
And so they should.
