Despite the big denials the Bruno Fernandes rumours have been taking in the past few days, Portuguese newspaper O Jogo ignores all of them today.
The outlet simply decided to write a kind of a farewell to the player, saying he’s now playing his last game at Alvalade this weekend before leaving Sporting.
This is not an article to report a deal with Manchester City or anything like that. They take stats to talk about the player’s deeds this season, as if the deal with the Premier League side was long done.
O Jogo then writes that Manchester City ‘didn’t want to wait’ and have ‘reserved him for €50m’. It’s said that the club should make it official after the Portuguese Cup final, which will be played on May 25th.
Once again, O Jogo treats it all as if it was old news. All these claims are made along with the words ‘just like advanced in news broken by O Jogo…”.
Since none of the outlets in Portugal (not even O Jogo, before this crazy story) had reported a done deal for Fernandes, this is really an awkward article. O Jogo would certainly have the agreement on their front page if they knew it was closed, so we wonder why they’ve done it this way.
Meanwhile, newspaper A Bola also brings a story on the player today, but obviously being more careful on their claims.
After reporting that Fernandes has been the best player in the league, they say the negotiations with Manchester City are ‘well forwarded’, ‘going favourably’, with only the price to be decided. They say the amount could get up to €70m.
Again, it’s worth noting that Sporting could be encouraging the idea of interest from the English club so that others feel pressured. Or perhaps it is all true and this is becoming a somewhat mind-bending transfer saga.
Record today said that whilst City and Sporting have been negotiating an ‘alliance’, a transfer for Bruno Fernandes hadn’t officially come into the talks, although there had been chatter at the meetings around how well the player has been doing.
