A couple of days ago, it was reported that Brighton & Hove Albion were ‘one step away’ from signing Nicolas Gonzalez from Stuttgart.
It was claimed that with a bid of €29m, the Seagulls were beating Gennaro Gattuso’s Fiorentina, as well as Tottenham, in the race for the Argentine midfielder.
Well, it turns out that Gattuso isn’t the coach at La Viola any longer, reportedly because of disagreements regarding their transfer plans, and now, it’s the Italian club who will end up signing Gonzalez.
The report comes from Sky Sport Germany journalist Max Bielefed. He claims Fiorentina are now ‘close’ to getting the 23-year-old, as ‘only details are missing’.
The story claims that the Serie A club will initially pay €23m plus €4m in bonuses, and ‘all parties’ believe the move can be sorted out in the coming hours.
It’s normal to see clubs making late moves to win the race for a signing, but are Fiorentina really getting the signing by paying less than what Brighton offered? Perhaps that bid from the Seagulls was never real, or Gonzalez chose to go to Italy instead of England, or maybe it was Gattuso who was blocking the move at La Viola.
Recent reports had also claimed that Tottenham Hotspur had entered negotiations for Gonzalez, although things went quiet this week. Coincidentally, Spurs now seem to be on the verge of announcing Gattuso as their new manager.
