Brighton said to be waiting for signing before agreeing departure – Feels like a distraction

Brighton’s move for Celtic’s Matt O’Riley is being linked closely to the exit of Billy Gilmour, perhaps too closely.

Napoli haven’t made that decisive sprint forward for the Scotsman and the indication from Italy is that a failure to secure O’Riley is holding up the Gilmour transfer.

The sentiment is echoed by Gianluca di Marzio, who spoke on his ‘Calciomercato – L’Originale’ last night and he mentioned that today is probably a decisive day in the Gilmour saga.

As relayed by CalcioNapoli24, the journalist said: “Brighton’s Gilmour is an operation in the final stages, he is unblocking the very last details that are still missing and tomorrow could be the right day

There has been optimism in Italy about the Gilmour move for a while now but the delay in the switch is probably about the fee rather than being reliant on O’Riley arriving from Celtic.

No agreement has been reached on a transfer fee and despite initial claims Napoli could secure Gilmour for not much over €10m, reality has seen that amount being pushed higher.

Using the O’Riley situation may be an assistance to placate Napoli’s currently furious fans, and their likely even more furious manager, Antonio Conte, but this delay is probably all down to not offering enough for Gilmour yet.