Arsenal and Liverpool have reportedly made bids for Islam Slimani. The clubs, who haven’t been strongly linked to the striker lately, have outbid Leicester in the race for the player, according to reports from Portugal.
O Jogo say both the Gunners and the Reds have offered €25.3m (£20m) for the 27-year-old. This weekend, it was also reported that Leicester had made a €20m offer plus €5m in bonuses (£15.9m + £4m).
But all the three approaches were reportedly rejected by the Sporting president Bruno de Carvalho, who keeps saying that the player will only leave if some club pay his €30m (£24m) release clause.
The Portuguese newspaper claim Liverpool are not happy with Christian Benteke’s form and consider Slimani to be a replacement for him because he has the ‘same game style’.
In Arsenal’s case, Arsene Wenger would use the Algerian striker to replace Olivier Giroud, who, according to the claims, would be off to Lyon this summer.
The battle for Slimani is increasingly strange, so many clubs have been reportedly interested but no one wants to pay the release clause, which is pretty affordable for these sides.
After so many statements from Sporting saying the striker would only leave for €30m, it’s strange that the competitors would take the risk of missing out on him by offering €4.7m (£4m) short instead of paying the clause and guaranteeing the signing.
It’s also curious that both Liverpool and Arsenal, who haven’t been linked as much as Leicester and Tottenham, for example, would offer the exact same amount and have their bids reported on the very same day.
It’s good to remember that Slimani’s release clause expires on June 30th, so whoever wants to buy him for that price has less than three weeks to do so, otherwise they will have to negotiate directly with Sporting.
