One thing that European football fans must know right now is: if your club is linked to a Sporting player, you must get into the Portuguese club’s situation to understand the rumour.
Everton, for example, have been linked to William Carvalho for a few months, in what would be a normal transfer, with the Toffees paying a fee to take him out of Lisbon.
But things have changed a lot in the past few weeks, with the midfielder considering terminating his contract with Sporting due to the attacks at Alcochete last month.
If successful after the inevitable legal challenge, that would make William available to sign on a free transfer this summer, quite a blow for Sporting, who have the player protected by a €45m release clause.
Newspaper Record brings an update about the situation today, claiming that there has been some pressure on William for him not to end his contract with Sporting.
The player hasn’t made a decision yet, and is expected to do so in the next few days, but Record believes he will end up giving up on this idea and stay as a Sporting player.
In case he stays, then the normal procedure is back, with clubs having to pay a fee to take him from Sporting. The Lions are said to be demanding €30m for the transfer this summer.
Record claims that after signing Maycon to replace Fred, Shakhtar Donetsk have ‘lost strength’ in the race, so Everton are now mentioned as the only potential destination for William this summer.
Now it’s a matter of waiting to see if an agreement with Sporting will be needed or not.
