I read some unlikely claims from The Chronicle’s Lee Ryder as I looked through their live blog over the weekend , with him stating that we made a ‘£35m bid’ for Real Sociedad striker Willian Jose over the summer – something I’m REALLY struggling to believe.
Apparently we asked about the his availability while discussing Mikel Merino’s exit, but Rondon was a ‘better option’ for us – shock horror!
This is almost impossible to believe given our reluctance to spend big on any player, never mind £35m on a player with no Premier League experience.
Here’s what Lee Ryder has said on The Chronicle’s site this week:
It all depends on what you believe, but the minutes from the Fans Forum meeting did claim that we were looking at a striker that would break our transfer record, and Willian Jose WAS mentioned albeit briefly.
My take on this is that we may have had some sort of interest in the player, but we were almost certainly put off as soon as we were given an asking price.
Either that or we had no intention to buy the player in the first place and it was a ploy from the board to make it look like they were trying to sign players, in order to keep the fans and Rafa quiet.
Choosing to sign Rondon made footballing ( experience in Premier League) and financial sense, but the claim that we would even consider spending £35m on a player is borderline laughable.
Fans patience with Mike Ashley has worn thin and it is unlikely many of us would fall for yet more lies.
a £35 bid sounds about right
sasdts(Quote)