Real Betis are keen to get William Carvalho’s £40,000 pay packet off the wage bill with Wolves and Leicester City interested in the Portugal international, as reported by Estadio Deportivo.
It is five years now since a midfielder with the frame and the height of a walk-in wardrobe burst onto the scene, the muscly metronome at the heart of a Portuguese side who conquered the 2016 European Championships.
But, having turned 29 earlier this month, it is difficult to shake the feeling that Carvalho has not delivered on that early promise.
The former Sporting Lisbon protégé has lost his place in Manuel Pellegrini’s Betis XI recently too, hooked at half-time on Saturday in what was his first start since mid-December.
Carvalho’s ineffectual display away to Elche felt like another nail in his Verdiblancos coffin too, with Estadio Deportivo reporting that the Andalusian outfit have put him on the transfer list heading into the summer window.
Betis president Angel Haro is asking for £18 million.
But, if Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester or even Inter Milan are willing to remove his £40,000-a-week contract from the wage bill, perhaps Betis would be willing to sell for a reduced fee.
The report adds that Carvalho is the second-highest earner in Pellegrini’s squad.
At Leicester, it is hard to imagine the La Liga benchwarmer taking Wilfried Ndidi’s place in Brendan Rodgers’ engine room. Maybe Wolves, the club home to several of his fellow Portugal internationals, would be a better fit for a man in need of a fresh start.
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