Manchester City will complete the signing of Valencia winger Ferran Torres this week, with the player set to sign a five-year deal at the Etihad.
That’s what Super Deporte report today, stating the players move to Manchester is in the final stages of completion.
Reports broke yesterday that City had finally reached an agreement with Valencia for Torres, who they are eyeing up as the replacement for Leroy Sané following his move to Valencia.
The initial report broke in Spain before spreading through England, with several sources in both countries confirming Manchester City were closing in after weeks of trying to get a deal done.
Super Deporte provide an overview of the situation today and explain that Valencia and City will make the transfer official ‘in the next few days’.
They say the two clubs have reached an agreement on €25m plus a series of variables that will see the figure ‘easily’ go up to €30m.
There is also a clause that will take it to €40m, the price Valencia wanted initially, but they will ‘hardly reach’ that sum given the ‘objectives’ it is tied to.
Instead, they will have to settle for a sum ‘below expectations’ they had set for a player who is highly rated in the game.
The newspaper explains Valencia began to lose Torres a year ago when he returned from starring at the U19 European Championship for Spain to find he had no place in Marcelino’s team.
That, plus other factors, such as Valencia’s need to cut costs after missing out on the Champions League, and the impact of COVID-19, have forced them to sell, with Torres refusing to sign an extension to the one year remaining on his current deal.
That last point is crucial, with several teams around Europe having made it clear they were looking at signing him on a free transfer.
That made Valencia move to try and secure a deal with Manchester City, who had initially offered €15m plus fixed variables and tried to include Yangel Herrera as part of the agreement.
Peter Lim wasn’t interested in that, however, and has instead settled on a higher price but still one nobody at Valencia will genuinely be happy about.
That is covered by Carlos Bosch in the same newspaper, with the journalist laying the blame for Torres’ departure firmly at the feet of the club’s ownership.
He says the club will have to ask questions about the whole deal, chiefly why they allowed a young player to develop in the first-team, and shine, without having him tied to a new deal first.
Similarly, he says the club must ask itself why they are no longer attractive to a young Valencian footballer who has openly declared his desire to stay at the club.
Torres doesn’t get off lightly, with Bosch believing the player could have at least given the club a ‘favourable negotiating position’ but instead refused to sign a new deal and thus make them the ‘weak party’.
His belief is that Torres failed to distinguish between the owners and the club, and thus punished the latter rather than the former.
Either way, he’s on his way to Manchester City, with the deal to be confirmed this week and a new five-year contract including ‘much higher’ wages there to be signed.
