Following the collapse of Armand Lauriente’s move to Sunderland on Sunday, SassuoloNews revealed disagreements over personal terms was a key reason behind the development.
A €20m fee was agreed between Sassuolo and the Black Cats and initially there were indications that there was also an agreement over personal terms, before things fell apart.
The dramatic turn of events is said to have concerned the Italian club and now, Sassuolo general director Giovanni Carnevali has blamed Lauriente’s agent for the mess.
He told Sky Italia, via SassuoloNews: “There are difficulties in this transfer market, many of them, not in the choices and objectives, but in the negotiations. As a football system, we deal with many agents, especially foreign ones. You might close a deal with a club and then have to buy the player from the agent.”
Without going too much into the details, Carnevali clearly believes the winger’s agent should have done better to help Sunderland seal their move.
“That’s not good for football. He [Lauriente] deserves attention from the management. His sale could have been important for investment, but this doesn’t jeopardise our objectives, so we’re continuing what we’re doing. We need to improve the team in various areas.”
There’s frustration at Sassuolo over how the transfer was dealt with, considering that they would have earned €20m from the deal. There’s no hard feelings towards Sunderland, though, who would have signed a very talented player.
The 26-year-old scored 18 times and racked up six assists in Serie B in the 2024/25 season. Even in Serie A, he scored 12 times and assisted just as many times across two seasons for Sassuolo.
AS Roma and Bologna are now keeping an eye on the Frenchman, and they’d be able to offer him the chance to play in European competition next season. Whether they can agree terms with the player’s agent is unknown.
