Nahitan Nandez is desperate to leave Cagliari in January but a £25 million price-tag is making life difficult for the reported Tottenham Hotspur and Leeds United target, according to Calciomercato.
It had been claimed, by his agent among others, that Cagliari have agreed to throw open the stable doors and let their wantaway Uruguay international gallop off into the Sardinian sunset during the winter transfer.
But if Tottenham or Leeds were hoping for a footballing equivalent to a DFS firesale, ‘everything must go’ including Nandez, they might have been left feeling a little disappointed.
£6 million is a discount – but not much of one in the grand scheme of things.
According to Calciomercato, that hefty price-tag is once again threatening to stand in the midfielder’s way as he looks to force his way out of a club nailed to the bottom of the table, winless in their first seven games of the new season.
Will Nahitan Nandez finally move to the Premier League in January?
“(Cagliari president Tommasso) Giulini has promised the player and me to do everything possible so that he leaves in the January window,” Nandez’s agent, Pablo Bentancur, told Calcio Napoli 24 over the weekend.
“Nandez wants to win something; he wants to play in the Champions League. The president has given us his word.
“I think he will sell him at a lower price than the one requested. There is a 36m euro clause, but the President spoke yesterday with Nandez and told him that he will lower the price and let him leave.”
Champions League football? Silverware?
Before you jump at the opportunity to point out that Tottenham are in no position to meet Nandez’s demands – 13-year trophy drought and all that – Spurs would still represent a substantial step up from a Cagliari side who have spent much of the last 18 months battling against relegation.
Calcio Napoli 24 reported on Tuesday that, as it stands, Tottenham are in pole position for Nandez’s signature, a deal close to completion.
Leeds, Arsenal and West Ham United have also been linked.
But while Giulini has already shaved £6 million of Nandez’s price-tag, he may have to lower his sights even further if a January departure is to happen.
“Nandez wanted to join a top club,” Cagliari’s sporting director Stefano Capozucca admitted after the close of the summer window.
“He had talks with Inter, Tottenham, Rome and Napoli. It’s normal he thought he could leave.”
Will Nandez be left disappointed again?
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