Everton, West Ham United, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United are part of the reason for growing anxiety at Benfica, reports Tuesday’s edition of A Bola.
Vangelis Pavlidis is one of three Benfica players on their front page, with the word ‘essentials’ shouted out. The gist is the Lisbon club don’t want to lose the Greek striker, fullback Álvaro Carreras or veteran central defender Nicolás Otamendi.
The Premier League clubs are all stated as ones who have been linked with Pavlidis, after the 26-year-old arrived in Lisbon last summer for around €20m.
Everton, West Ham United, Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United may have been linked elsewhere, but A Bola don’t appear too confident about it. They do sound confident about Barcelona interest, though, which feels an almighty stretch.
Pavlidis has a mightily impressive 28 goals and 11 assists so far this season, but the media close to Barcelona haven’t really been pushing Blaugrana interest.
Benfica have him secured on a contract with a €100m release clause, and ‘there’s some concern’ one of Everton, West Ham United, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United or Barcelona could try to test them with an offer presumably way below that.
