With Torino failing to come up with any money up front for Leicester City’s Dennis Praet to date, Fiorentina have stepped up their efforts to sign the Belgian, seen as the replacement for Lucas Torreira.
This comes from Corriere dello Sport, who claim outright that ‘the offer to Leicester for the Belgian’s transfer will be formalised today’.
After talks that continued ‘during the week’, the Serie A side ‘are now ready to pass from words to deeds and will formally forward to the English their initial offer equal to €7m’.
They are just testing the waters, however, as ‘the feeling is that the Foxes’ answer will initially be negative’, as they rate Praet ‘twice as much’ as the bid.
However, ‘this doesn’t mean that Daniele Pradè and his transfer team will throw in the towel at the start’, as their intention ‘is in fact to return and possibly propose a different formula to Leicester, such as a paid loan with an obligation to redeem tied to the amount of appearances’.
That’s all the detail they give, but you would expect that second bid to total to more than the initial €7m offer, which could entice Brendan Rodgers’ side a bit more.
La Nazione, down their end, relayed by Firenze Viola, claim that Leicester, while not wanting to keep Praet, ‘don’t intend to negotiate for less than €10m’, which falls in line with what Corriere dello Sport suggest, in that €7m won’t be enough.
We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s clear the first moves are being made.
