Premier League newcomers Fulham are no longer in pole position to sign Manor Solomon with Serie A outfit Torino now the favourites, Shakhtar Donetsk director Carlo Nicolini tells Tuttomercatoweb.
Marco Silva’s side have not completed a single new signing since sealing the Championship title. Though that’s not for a lack of trying.
The Cottagers have held talks with the likes of Thomas Strakosha, Al-Musrati and the aforementioned Solomon, without managing to get anything over the line. In the case of Solomon, it was anticipated that he would be a Fulham player in time for pre-season.
Reports as far back as April claimed that Fulham had agreed a cut-price £7 million fee for the Israel international winger. Solomon was set to sign a long-term deal worth £25,000-a-week, and admitted a couple of weeks ago that he expected to be a Premier League player in 2022/23.
According to the all-seeing, all-knowing Fabrizio Romano, however, negotiations have now collapsed. Why is anyone’s guess. It was suggested that there were problems regarding Solomon’s signing-on bonus, though that alone should not be enough to ki-bosh a deal in such dramatic fashion.
Fulham’s Manor Solomon deal falls through
“Solomon? He is a starter, he also scored some goals in the Champions League,” says Nicolini, Shakhtar Donetsk’s deputy director.
“Torino are in the first row, but other English clubs and two Serie A clubs have also moved. Finally, the Italian clubs have realised that there is the possibility of doing business with Shakhtar.”
Torino are prioritising a new wideman following the departure of Josip Brekalo, the Wolfsburg loanee who opted against putting pen to paper on a permanent deal.
Fulham’s interest in Solomon, meanwhile, goes back a lot further than this summer.
“Maccabi Petah Tikva will lose over 1.5 million euros from (Solomon’s) move to Fulham,” says Avi Luzon, the chairman of Solomon’s former employers.
Maccabi Petah Tikva, he adds, have a sell-on clause in the forward’s contract.
“In January, Shakhtar had an offer from Fulham for 18 million euros (£15 million),” Luzon says.
“If they had sold him for that amount in January, and not as Fulham would pay now, then we would have had over a million and a half euros. Fulham benefited, took advantage of the situation in Ukraine.”
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