it appears Wahbi Khazri has found himself in a tug of war between AS Saint-Etienne and Rennes.
Depending on who you believe, the Sunderland forward could end up at either club in the coming days, but Foot Mercato understand the former of the two have the best chance.
The reason for that is that the Tunisia international has already given them his word he would join them this summer.
This corroborates what L’Equipe reported a few days ago, who even went as far as saying Sunderland and Saint-Etienne had reached an agreement for his transfer.
In between these two reports, L’Equipe also claimed, this time on Thursday, Rennes had come back with a new contract offer for the Black Cats player; one deemed important enough to change the whole affair.
Foot Mercato also confirm that Rennes’ offer is more substantial, but that shouldn’t change anything.
For Khazri, who is currently on holiday after playing at the World Cup for Tunisia, the next step in his career will be Saint-Etienne, with the belief it could be all sorted early next week.
That is, of course, unless Rennes come back with yet another offer to try and change his mind, again.
Edit: A couple of hours after Foot Mercato’s report, L’Equipe published a new update on the situation explaining that Saint-Etienne had offered Khazri a new contract to try and counter Rennes’ proposal.
Despite still being inferior financially, the offer was accompanied by a phone call from Jean-Louis Gasset, Les Verts’ manager, who was given reassurances by the Sunderland player that he’d enjoy playing under him on the condition the terms were acceptable.
There’s hope for Saint-Etienne again.
