FC Midtjylland were unable to sign Stoke City’s Wouter Burger in the winter market.
On February 3rd, we covered claims from Denmark that Midtjylland had reached an agreement with Stoke City and the 24-year-old underwent medical tests in England. The operation didn’t go through because the Potters called off the transfer on deadline day.
Tipsbladet cover the Danish club’s failure to take the midfielder away from Stoke City.
On January 24th, Midtjylland sold Emiliano Martínez to Palmeiras and the Uruguayan’s exit saw them look for his replacement.
The report states the Stoke City man and Heracles Almelo’s Brian De Keersmaecker were serious options. The Superliga side weren’t able to sign either of them and took Dani Silva from Hellas Verona on deadline day.
Tipsladet had a chat with Midtjylland sporting director Peter Sand, who is pleased with Silva’s arrival last month. He revealed they had multiple options to replace Martínez but refused to reveal details of other players.
Sand insists it was a risk-free strategy from Midtjylland to work on multiple operations for one position. The outlet mentions the Championship club refused to let Burger leave in the last window.
“I relate to the ones we end up signing, but that’s obvious, and it’s nothing extraordinary. As I said, we are looking at several candidates. I don’t want to go into detail about who it was specifically. But it’s just a professional job, because it’s exactly for these types of reasons,” he said.
“There are so many dependencies that it’s far too risky to focus on one candidate. You don’t just need one, you need two or three.”
“I call it an extended property deal. There are many dependencies, and you can ask how far back in the chain you have to go. And that all adds up to the fact that sometimes things finally fall into place at the 11th hour.”
“And I know that outwardly it may seem like we end up with third or fourth priority. You want to have three candidates you want to have in the team.”
“And then you get started. And then it doesn’t make much sense to talk about who is first or third priority, you want each of them. Fortunately, we did a good and professional job, so we were able to close with an adequate replacement for Emi.”
