Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brighton have tried to sign Peterborough United starlet Adler Nascimento, Posh owner Darragh MacAnthony has said on his Hard Truth Podcast.
For Peterborough fans, 1 February 1 can’t come soon enough.
While the coveted Siriki Dembele has handed in a transfer request in an attempt to force a winter departure from the League One promotion-chasers, a highly talented teenager is also attracting plenty of interest from clubs further up the footballing pyramid.
Nascimento has scored for fun in Peterborough’s youth ranks – netting a hat-trick in a recent 5-0 thrashing of Leyton Orient. And his eye for goal hasn’t gone unnoticed.
But, according to the outspoken MacAnthony, Nascimento will cost a lot more than the £200,000 figure that has been floated for the fresh-faced forward.
“We have a 15-year-old in the under-18 team who every club in the Premier League is trying to buy and they think they can nick him for, like, 200 grand,” says MacAnthony, who couldn’t resist a dig at Wolves’ Iberian-influenced transfer strategy.
“Brighton, we’ve had Wolves – he’s Portuguese this kid so obviously Wolves were at the table.
“Probably four clubs have put in offers like that but what they didn’t realise was that he’s already signed a pre-pro contract for when he turns 17, which allows us to set a price we want.
“So no-one can steal him any more. Then we had one of them even talk about half a million and we were like, ‘No’.”
Wolves raided Peterborough’s third-tier rivals Rochdale for young defender Luke Matheson 12 months ago.
And with Brexit rules preventing Premier League clubs from signing U18 players from outside Britain, home-grown talent such as Nascimento will soon be in higher demand than ever.
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