At lunchtime in Spain on Thursday, ABC Sevilla, one of the two major newspapers in the city, reported Aston Villa had now had an offer accepted for Loïc Badé.
It appeared a huge leap forward from what their newspaper edition reported this morning. The new offer was put at €26m plus bonuses, in a deal which could reach €32m.
However, the leading angle was that Loïc Badé himself had turned the move down. So Monchi had collapsed from his negotiating stance and gone ahead with an offer which satisfied Sevilla, but had been left to look something of a fool after the defender then rejected Aston Villa once the bid had been accepted.
It would take quite some believing.
Not long after that, another Spanish newspaper, AS, published their own article. Their chief writer in Andalusia reported Aston Villa had ‘reached an agreement’ with Sevilla. The figures for the Villa offer were put at €23m plus a potential €3m in bonuses, and again it was claimed Loic Badé had rejected the move.
Next up came Marca and their Sevilla correspondent. They also went with the €23m plus €3m, and joined the chorus to repeat the defender rejected Aston Villa.
La Colina de Nervion, Sevilla specialists, went high. They reported Aston Villa’s second offer ‘exceeded the €30m’ which had been requested and was actually €30m plus a potential €6m in bonus payments. Oh, and of course they didn’t forget to say Loic Badé had rejected Aston Villa.
Following them on the timeline was Diario de Sevilla. They explained the two clubs were ‘very close to reaching an economic agreement’ for ‘around €30m’.
The gist of the Thursday lunchtime brief – and that’s exactly what it looks like – is that Monchi gave in and Aston Villa satisfied Sevilla’s demands only to then face the embarrassment of a snub.
That most of the figures are different means that part was obviously left up to interpretation, with the general message being Victor Orta won in negotiations and Monchi has been left with egg on his face.
If you’ve been following our coverage of this mini sage, then this Sevilla media slant, and that such a line has clearly been fed to them, won’t come as a great surprise.