Last Friday, also known as the day after the deadline day, Portuguese newspaper O Jogo claimed there were late contacts between Sporting and Arsenal for the transfer of William Carvalho. There weren’t many details on the story, as they just said the Gunners decided not to make an official offer, and the approach ended up being ‘only smoke’.
But it seems it was not only Arsenal, but also Everton who were involved in these late talks. The same newspaper brought an extension to this story over the weekend, and claimed that due to Sporting’s will to sell the midfielder, they contacted several agents to get the sale done.
The Premier League is seen as a gold mine in Portugal, so the club hoped an English side would show up offering something close to the player’s €45m release clause. But just like Arsenal, Everton also decided not to go for the midfielder.
Everton were picked as one of the Portuguese press’ favourite clubs this transfer window, especially for big transfers.
They were also said to be close to Raul Jimenez from Benfica, who the Lisbon side were demanding over €40m for, and that didn’t happy either.
Everton’s relatively new investment, plus the money from selling Romelu Lukaku, obviously made some in Portugal think that money would be free-flowing from Goodison Park.
It was, to a certain extent, it’s just Everton weren’t keen to send it to Portugal.
