As reported in Sweden last night, it seems that Benfica have finally reached an agreement to pay Vasteras for all the debts the Portuguese club had for Victor Lindelof.
This deal apparently unblocks the defender’s transfer to Manchester United, who had reportedly agreed a fee with Benfica for the signing, but still couldn’t land the player due to this bureaucracy.
Now Portuguese newspapers Record and O Jogo disagree about where the deal stands, with each of them saying it’s gone one way during the past few days.
And according to Record, Manchester United are annoyed about it, making them walk away from the deal.
So the club would forget about the defender, at least during the January market. That’s why Inter Milan have felt encouraged to join a race which was already supposed to have a winner.
But O Jogo, who reported the move first, are still pretty confident about it.
They say Manchester United threatened to leave the signing for the summer due to delay it was taking, but Benfica president Luis Filipe Vieira was alarmed with this possibility and took care of the problem as soon as possible.
So according to them, the transfer which has been agreed since the 19th of December is ready to go. The €50m transfer (with bonuses included) is ready to progress as the player will sign a contract until 2022 with a salary of €3.5m per season.
It seems that Benfica’s eyes turned to € signs at the slightest sign of Manchester United interest, and not only did the Portuguese club quickly try and cheat Vasteras, the defender’s former club, out of their cut, but they also decided to get as much as possible from England.
That greed, and Manchester United currently not having a central defensive disaster, may well cost Benfica any real chance they had of the big transfer. Time will tell.
