It appears that yesterday’s claim from Italy suggesting that Fulham were close to signing Justin Kluivert was a bit premature.
That’s because subsequent reports from Foot Mercato and now Gazzetta dello Sport make it clear the journalist somewhat jumped the gun.
Looking at the latter on Wednesday, the Italian newspaper state that Roma ‘abruptly broke off relations’ with Fulham regarding the Dutchman’s loan.
That came after the Premier League side ‘offered €3m for Kluivert plus €8m in bonuses linked to two conditions’, with those being him appearing in 50% of games and the Craven Cottage side avoiding the drop.
As they put it, ‘in short, everything stops here too’, which is a blow to AS Roma’s own plans, who wanted the forward’s exit done so they could finalise the arrival of Andrea Belotti on a free transfer.
The report from Gazzetta does corroborate what Foot Mercato were reporting late on Tuesday, which was that the Serie A side wanted €4m up front and an obligation to buy at €10m if the Craven Cottage club stayed up.Therefore, if the above offer from Fulham is true, it fell short of the Italians’ demands, which is why they will have pulled the plug on it for now.
The ball will now be in the hands of Marco Silva’s side, who will need to decide whether to up their bid or not.
