Fulham’s attempts to sign Ricardo Pepi from PSV Eindhoven are looking likely to be drawn out all the way to deadline day.
That’s at least if the latest information from PSV Fans and Soccer News is anything to go by. They have comments from journalists Rik Elfrink and Mounir Boualin regarding the striker today.
Fulham have been working on a deal for Pepi for weeks, despite PSV’s reluctance to sell the striker. The Dutch side had initially chased Marco Silva’s side away, insisting that a deal would not happen.
Their approach appears to have changed in the face of Fulham’s insistence, though. The Premier League side’s apparent desire to spend €30m plus on the forward has clearly had an effect.
PSV rejected Fulham’s latest bid of €32m this week, despite various voices in the Netherlands telling them to take the money and run. And it seems Fulham don’t want to move beyond that yet, according to Elfrink.
“Pepi – Fulham – PSV: no agreement reached on a transfer as of late last night,” he said.
“Fulham refused to budge and PSV refused to lower the price. Deal not yet done, but not off the table.”
That latter part is key, according to Boualin. He reports that Fulham and PSV are closing in on each other for the striker, and he expects the two clubs to reach an agreement eventually. That’s despite Pepi being out injured with a broken arm.
Why Pepi drama looks on the way for Fulham
“What I understand is that Fulham simply won’t give up. The gap between supply and demand is very small,” he added about the Pepi drama.
“They’re not quite there yet, but that could happen at any moment, it could be in an hour or a day. The rumours are that it will work out, but with something like this, it’s also true: if nothing has been agreed yet, it’s simply not finalised yet.
“PSV and Fulham are simply negotiating a fee that PSV wants. Fulham is slowly but surely getting closer to that. Then all sorts of other things come into play: resale, certain other clauses. Those are all things that need to be ironed out.”
Fulham are clearly serious on Pepi, and getting a deal agreed before the deadline.
