Nottingham Forest’s move for André Luiz looks much less certain now the English transfer window has closed, but for reasons different than usual.
Forest offered €12m (£10.4m) for the Corinthians midfielder last month. The expectation was that talks could carry on after the deadline, as André wouldn’t actually move to England until 2027 anyway.
That still can happen. But there are now a couple of reasons to wonder whether it will.
Corinthians have confirmed Forest never came back after receiving their counteroffer. At the same time, the Marinakis operation ended the window by signing another young midfielder, Gustavo Puerta (who will spend this season at Olympiacos).
The Colombian is in a similar age bracket to André, plays in a similar area of the pitch and cost around the sort of figures being discussed for the Brazilian.
There’s nothing to say Forest signed Puerta specifically instead of André. It’s still useful context, though, when looking at where the Corinthians player’s situation stands now.
Forest didn’t come back after Corinthians counteroffer
Globo Esporte have now spoken to Corinthians executive Marcelo Paz, who gave a very precise timeline of what happened with Forest.
He says the Premier League club offered €12m (£10.4m) guaranteed, with no bonuses, on August 22.
“On Saturday, August 22, we received an offer from Nottingham Forest of €12m (£10.4m) straight, without bonuses, without anything,” Paz said.
“We received that offer at exactly 8.28pm [Brazilian time]. At 9.54pm, Corinthians submitted the counteroffer. After that, nothing else came.”
There was plenty of talk about Forest preparing better figures and the parties trying to find some middle ground. In the end, at least according to Paz, none of that turned into another offer.
Agent says Corinthians countered ‘not to sell’
André Luiz’s agent Diogo Silva isn’t particularly impressed with how Corinthians dealt with the situation. He believes the Brazilian club have got their player’s market value wrong.
Silva uses Milan’s €17m (£14.7m) offer earlier this year as the obvious example. Corinthians turned that down, but the offers which followed didn’t get close to the same figure. Forest offered €12m (£10.4m). Olympiacos went to €10m (£8.7m).
Diogo doesn’t hide his discomfort with the Corinthians board’s stance in the negotiations with Milan. According to him, more than 28 emails were exchanged between the parties involved before Corinthians gave up on the deal. The contract was already drafted, with only the signature of president remaining.
“The player’s price is determined by the market,” Silva added. “We can’t delude ourselves by comparing players to other institutions, otherwise the player will never leave and the club won’t be able to generate revenue and solve its problems.”
The agent also criticizes the responses given by Corinthians to Nottingham and Olympiacos. According to him, the amounts requested by the club were far from what the English and Greek clubs were offering, and the counter-proposals were made “to avoid a sale”.
“If it’s the right time to sell the player, then do it”, he said. “They weren’t careful with the other institutions and exposed Corinthians. It’s one thing to not want to sell the player. But when you open negotiations, you have to respect the institution on the other side.”
André will now stay at Corinthians until the end of the Brazilian season. He still wants to eventually move to one of Europe’s five major leagues.
England therefore remains an obvious possibility despite nothing happening before the deadline. Whether Nottingham Forest come back for him – now having Puerta on board – is a different question.
