With the summer transfer window usually fertile breeding ground for gossip-mongers and speculation-spreaders, it’s a refreshing change to be offered a peak behind the curtain.
And, in an interview more revealing than a Love Island swimsuit, Fiorentina director Daniel Prade took the somewhat unusual route of speaking openly and publicly about where exactly the Serie A outfit are in their pre-season preparations.
Fiorentina, Prade explains, will not be signing Lucas Torreira after all. Dennis Praet, Riqui Puig and Andrea Belotti are off the table too. Luka Jovic and Dodo are on their way to the Stadio Artemio Franchi, however. So is the former Tottenham benchwarmer Pierluigi Gollini.
But it was Prade’s comments on Florian Grillitsch that will catch the eye of supporters from Liverpool to London.
“We followed him a lot and it could have been an opportunity on a free transfer,” Prade tells TMW of the Austria international, who’s Hoffenheim contract expired last week, translated by BuliNews.
“But we didn’t like his father’s talk and demands.”
The deal, it seems, is as dead as the dodo. The bird, of course, not the Shakhtar Donetsk full-back packing his bags and heading to Florence.
Fiorentina back away from Florian Grillitsch deal
Not that Grillitsch is likely to remain unemployed for long. The Telegraph reported in April that the elegant, 6ft 2ins ball-carrier was a target for Arsenal. Leeds United, Everton and West Ham are also among Grillitsch’s many admirers. Newcastle, meanwhile, started talks with the 26-year-old former Werder Bremen colossus all the way back in January (Daily Mail).
“I think he’s a very good technical player. The only question marks over him would be if he could cope with the physicality of the Premier League,” says former Liverpool ace Dietmar Hamann.
“It is a different game and it’s something that he still needs to work on, but he’s a brilliant player. Technically he’s very gifted. So if he played in the right system, he could definitely help Newcastle.”
“In my opinion, Flo Grillitsch is one of the best players in the Bundesliga,” adds former Hoffenheim boss Julian Nagelsmann (Sky).
“He still has a few things to improve, he knows that. But he is an exceptional footballer and has an incredible gift for setting the tempo of the game.”
Is ‘exceptional’ midfielder heading to the Premier League?
It’s not every day a midfielder of Grillitsch’s poise and technique is available for nothing. His new-found availability, on a free, should appeal to an Arsenal side who have been quoted sizeable fees for the likes of Youri Tielemans and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. Everton and West Ham are in need of added quality and quantity in central areas too.
And while Leeds will to add Tyler Adams to Marc Roca in a new-look engine room, Grillitsch would represent an upgrade on the injury-prone Adam Forshaw and the ageing Mateusz Klich.
Fiorentina’s loss should be someone else’s gain. Who that ‘someone else’ turns out to be, however, is anyone’s guess.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
