Saturday’s edition of A Bola shouts out that West Brom have offered €15m to Sporting for Rodrigo Battaglia, and the Portuguese club have turned it down.
That doesn’t mean that’s it, with A Bola saying there’s an admission a higher value could seal the transfer for West Brom. Sporting paid €4.5m to SC Braga at the beginning of this season for 80% of the player’s rights.
The Portuguese newspaper, presenting this as their biggest story on Saturday, state that Sporting will be happy to begin more serious negotiations should West Brom take their offer to €25m.
In Portuguese transfer speak, that means Sporting will be quite content to receive such an amount and West Brom could then negotiate how much of that is guaranteed and how the figure will be paid.
Of course, it’s not counting out that West Brom could get the Argentine for cheaper.
Braga are due 20% of any sale, something Sporting are considering when building their price. At €15m it would leave the Lisbon club with €12m, one of the reasons they’re trying to push the figure up.
Battaglia is a 26 year old midfielder, playing a more defensive role, and has appeared in 21 matches for Sporting already this season, with the majority coming as a starter.
