On Wednesday we covered a report from Portugal which stated Brighton & Hove Albion have increased their offer to sign Alberto Costa from Vitória de Guimarães.
Having already made an offer for the right-back at the start of the January transfer window, the Seagulls were said to have returned on Wednesday and put €12m on the table for the Liga Portugal club.
On top of that would be the potential to earn a further €2m in bonuses, and Brighton were even prepared to leave Alberto Costa at Vitória de Guimarães until the end of the current season.
The problem for the Premier League club is that the 21-year-old iss set on Sporting, and Brighton’s offer hadn’t made him wobble… although it had changed Vitória’s ideas regarding an asking price.
Now it sounds like Sporting are somewhat irritated by the Brighton moves.
Thursday’s edition of Record states the English club has been ‘meddling’ and using their ‘more powerful financial arguments’.
Record insist Alberto Costa is ‘determined’ to move to Sporting, but there’s ‘millions’ in the way. Their best offer so far is €9m plus €2m, and they want to pay that over three seasons and only start next year.
The newspaper say negotiations between Sporting and Vitória halted yesterday but could restart at any time.
Meanwhile, O Jogo sound much more confident on behalf of Sporting and believe it’s just a matter of time before Alberto Costa belongs to them.
