Almeria are not willing to part with striker Umar Sadiq in January, despite interest from the likes of Newcastle United and Barcelona.
That’s according to Mundo Deportivo, who cover the situation around the striker today and say that a winter move is being ruled out by his current club.
The newspaper explains how Barcelona are determined to improve their options upfront in January, having recently lost Sergio Aguero due to a heart condition.
One of their primary targets is Basel’s Arthur Cabral, but he is not the only one on the list, and Sadiq has been mentioned in various meetings of the club’s technical secretariat.
They consider him a good, low-cost option to bolster Xavi’s options, but Almeria are not going to make things easy.
They’ve known about the interest from Barcelona for months, and they have made it clear they have no intention of listening to offers for their star man.
This also applies to interest from elsewhere, say the likes of Newcastle, who were linked earlier this month in Spain.
Almeria are pushing for promotion, so they don’t have any intention of letting one of their key players leave if they can avoid it.
Sadiq is valued at around €18m, but if he was to leave, they would insist that his release clause, which is currently set at €60m, be paid in full. In other words, any interested party will have to pay through the nose to get the forward.
That will change come the summer when Almeria will be more than happy to negotiate but not in January when they really don’t want to lose the man who can fire them to promotion.
Newcastle would be wise to look elsewhere if they are interested then, with this a deal that will cost them much more than even their bottomless pit of money can stomach.
