Torino’s technical director Davide Vagnati spent New Year’s Eve ‘in London’ as he tries to wrap up deals for West Ham United’s Nikola Vlasic and Leicester City’s Denis Praet.
That’s according to La Stampa, relayed by Torino Granata, who say Vagnati is pushing hard to get both deals over the line.
They explain that Vagnati ‘took the opportunity’ to please his coach, Ivan Juric, by spending New Year’s Eve in London negotiating deals.
According to the newspaper, London could be the ‘junction’ for Torino’s plans for this market as they look to secure Vlasic on a permanent basis from West Ham and bring Praet back from Leicester.
The purchase option on Vlasic, who has been the star of the show since arriving on loan in the summer, is set at €15m. Praet, meanwhile is valued at €10m by Leicester.
They would be willing to drop to €8m but nothing less, which is a problem for Torino as they only value the Belgian midfielder at €6m.
Vagnati’s plan is to fund the moves by selling midfielder Sasa Lukic, who has interest from England and could end up ‘earning’ them €15m.
Indeed, part of the trip to London was to ‘understand which other admirers’ he has in the Premier League and whether he could ‘place’ him there this month.
Interestingly Lukic has been linked with both Leicester and West Ham, so perhaps Vagnati has been speaking to both clubs about their players and the possibility of signing his at the same time.
That would certainly make sense, with Torino a club to keep an eye on in the coming weeks as they look to sell and buy in the Premier League in the January transfer window.
