West Brom want £5.4m loan-to-buy deal for player training away from team-mates – report
West Brom and Benfica are continuing their negotiations over Filip Krovinovic’s potential return to The Hawthorns, according to Record.
The Portuguese newspaper claims that Albion are not happy with Benfica’s £9million valuation of the 25-year-old and have instead told the Lisbon giants they are willing to take him back on a loan-to-buy basis that sees them pay just £5.4million next summer.
Of course, Record claims that Benfica are unhappy with West Brom’s proposal.
Not only do Benfica want to sell Krovinovic permanently, rather than loaning him out, they want to make a decent amount of money on the Croatian playmaker.
After Krovinovic’s impressive performances on loan at West Brom last season, you can understand why Benfica would want a good fee for the midfielder.
However, Albion will argue that Krovinovic is not in Jorge Jesus’ plans at Estadio da Luz and Record says that he’s even training away from his team-mates until his future is resolved.
Benfica don’t want Krovinovic – and West Brom know that.
But Slaven Bilic really wants the midfielder back at The Hawthorns – and Benfica knows that.
The attitude of all the parties involved has made this a difficult deal to negotiate.
We think that the Baggies will have a breakthrough at some point but it does not seem likely that Krovinovic will be back in the Black Country in time to play against Leicester at The Hawthorns on Sunday.
Benfica’s might soften their stance as we get towards the end of the transfer window, which closes next month.
In other West Brom news, we’ve revealed that this pre-season friendly is not taking place on Tuesday night despite online rumours.
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