Just moments ago, The Mail’s Craig Hope reported that Aston Villa had made an opening offer of £15m for Newcastle United target Callum Wilson.
Now, The Telegraph’s Matt Law reveals that Bournemouth want a ‘fixed fee’ of £17m for the 28-year-old striker after rejecting Villa’s bid.
As he writes below, it’s believed Villa’s opening offer has ‘pushed them to the front of the queue’ for the England international, but Newcastle remain interested and are preparing an offer of Matt Ritchie plus cash:
Elsewhere, Sky Sports claim the bid rejected was between £13-£15m plus potential future add ons, which perhaps explains why Bournemouth prefer a set fee of £17m up front.
If Bournemouth really do want just £17m, it makes you wonder if we really need to use Matt Ritchie as bait? Isn’t that a price tag even our ‘£30-£35m’ budget can work with given we’ve signed nothing but free agents so far?
That said, if Bournemouth are as keen to sign Ritchie as we’re led to believe then he may be our bargaining tool and the thing that gives us leverage over Villa. Surely an offer of £7-10m plus Ritchie may do the trick?
Either way, it’s time to pull our finger out and get moving, otherwise we are seriously risk missing out on the sort of proven Premier League striker we are crying out for – not to mention the fact we’d be strengthening a rival if Villa were allowed to sign him.
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Same Old Same Old, we will lose out as our Hierarchy won’t move fast enough – Relegation Battle here we come! 🙁
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Olly I can’t even read that article because of the overlapping adverts.
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