Speaking to the English media this week, agent Kia Joorabchian dismissed the claims which said Arsenal are chasing his client Joelson Fernandes.
It was the Portuguese press who have been reporting that interest for a while now, so after the quotes from the representative, it was intriguing to see what the reaction from today’s newspapers would be.
It turns out that A Bola aren’t backing off, and stick to their information regarding Arsenal’s attempt to sign the 17-year-old.
They relay all of Kia Joorabchian’s quotes in which he labels the Gunners’ interest as ‘fake’, but then they say they stick to ‘everything reported so far’.
A Bola claims to have ‘confirmed’ with a ‘close and direct source to the player’ that Arsenal made two offers to sign him, and both were rejected by Sporting, who continue to point out to his €45m release clause.
The newspaper also says that Sporting tried to renew Joelson Fernandes’ contract, but since they couldn’t agree a new release clause, the negotiations have finished.
This is a very interesting scenario, because in any other cases it’s often the agent pushing claims of interest to help with a renewal. Had A Bola not been sure in their claims, they’d have simply covered Joorabchian’s comments and then moved on to other stories.
