Fulham may have been presented with their chance to sign KAA Gent striker Gift Orban on the cheap after seeing a €30m bid rejected in the summer.
That’s according to Het Laatste Nieuws, who say the striker’s value has fallen by half and the Belgian side are now ‘open to a sale’.
The newspaper cover the player today and explain how the Promise of the Year has seen his transfer value drop significantly this season after being the darling of the division last year.
He was ‘hot’ property in the summer, with Lille eyeing him as a replacement for Jonathan David, Tottenham sending scouts and following him closely and Fulham even making a bid to ‘steal him away’.
That was rejected as Gent had received a capital injection from new owner Sam Baro so didn’t need a sale and believed that Orban could continue to shine and increase his value.
The opposite has happened, though, with his momentum stalling significantly and the goals drying up, even in training.
His numbers are no longer what they once were, although 12 in 29 games in all competitions is by no means bad, and now Gent have changed their stance.
They are now ‘open to a sale’ on the proviso that they get the right figure and can find a replacement. On the former, Orban is now being valued at €15m by the likes of Transfermarkt while Eintracht Frankfurt were quoted €20m this month.
Both of those are significantly lower than the €30m quote in the summer and that should be of interest to Fulham, who were very much in the mix for him.
They definitely still need a striker, despite Raul Jimenez rediscovering how to score over the last month, and Orban is a man they’ve looked at already.
They seemingly baulked at the figures requested in the summer but now he’s available for less, he may be a name to keep an eye on in the final weeks of the transfer window.
