Batshuayi ticking bomb defused

TRANSFER TALK

Marseille President Vincent Labrune has bought time to play interested parties off gainst one another in pursuit of striker Michy Batshuayi.

He has to convince the DNCG to allow that and he promised them he would sell the player by the end of the transfer window. This means Juventus do not have to be in a rush to sell him now and we have to readjust our thinking instead of trying to squeeze them financially by 30 June.

It is a clever move by Labrune who has got rid of the ticking bomb that was staring at him. 

West Ham, who Batshuayi has refused to talk to and doesn't want to join are said to have tabled a bid of £28.12-million (€35m - AUS$52.02m - US$38.86m) plus £4.03-million (€5m - AUS$7.43m - US$5.55m) in bonuses. Marseille may like it although they haven't accepted it yet, Batshuayi has made it clear he'll decide where he plays, not simply to the highest bid Marseille receive.

French paper L'Equipe are suggesting that Juventus have submitted a bid yesterday of £25.78-million (€32m - AUS$47.57m - US$35.59m) plus £2.42m (€3m - AUS$4.46m - US$2.24m) in bonuses.

The Italian press says Juventus will not bid more than £20.14m (€25m - AUS$37.16m - US$27.83m) plus bonuses so who do you believe and how much of this is Labrune using the press to try and get a better offer. Atletico Madrid has other targets at the moment and that leaves ourselves, who will just ignore other bids and make our own financial evaluation of the player.

It should be noted that Get French Football lNews contacted Batshuayi's agent and asked about the reported agreement of terms between Tottenham and Batshuayi. They were asked if they could deny these rumours and his agent didn't deny them. As reported earlier the £100,000-aweek wages was just an invented story by a journalist trying to get an angle and repeated by all and sundry.

The only other serious contenders for his signature apart from ourselves at the moment is Juventus, who see him as a replacement for Alvaro Morata. He hasn't departed yet but is expected to.

Now the deadline has ben removed this one could run although if Juventus want him then you would now expect him to go there where he can win titles and play in the Champions League. I'd expect us to turn our attention to Vincent Janssen and make him our number one target now unless Batshuayi has firmly set his sights on Tottenham.

---