Sunderland reportedly had an offer for the Benfica midfielder Andreas Samaris turned down by the Portuguese club on deadline day.
According to Record, the Black Cats put an official €20m bid on the table. This was their second offer for the midfielder, already having one refused before.
Even though Benfica considered this bid to be good, they decided to turn it down because they’ve already sold another midfielder recently and wouldn’t have had time to find a replacement.
The links between the Black Cats and Samaris during the January window weren’t frequent, but were still pretty strong.
Portuguese website Notícias ao Minuto even claimed to have a quote from a Sunderland secretary confirming the deal was closed. Sunderland club secretary Brett Baker reportedly told them “the agreement is closed”, confirming the total agreement between the clubs.
Giving how good Record claimed Sunderland’s bid to be, and if it’s true, we wouldn’t be surprised to see the clubs finding an agreement during the next transfer window.
