Hull City surprises everyone with one of this summer’s boldest moves by putting in an unexpected £30m bid.
With the deadline day coming up soon, newly-promoted Hull City are working hard to land one of the biggest signings of the transfer window. It’s been an exciting summer for the Tigers as they keep building a stronger squad. They’ve already spent over £75 million since their big win against Middlesbrough in the Championship play-off final.
Hull made a club-record signing by paying over £20 million for defender Nobel Mendy. They’ve also brought in goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis and a promising young player, Lucas Harrington, which has caught a lot of attention. Just this week, they signed French forward Mohamed-Ali Cho from Ligue 1 side Nice for around £15 million.
If the rumors are true, Hull have made a €35 million (£30m) verbal offer to Lyon for 21-year-old Malick Fofana. French news outlet Foot Mercato says Hull have even spoken with Fofana over a video call, explaining their plans for the club, and are now waiting to hear back from him. Fofana, who has scored two goals in his last two games for Lyon, is also on the radar of clubs like Inter Milan and Roma.
Recently, journalist Romain Molina mentioned that Lyon will need to sell players for about €100 million (£85m) before next summer to balance their budget. Things got harder for Lyon after they missed out on the Champions League group stage following a loss to Fenerbahce.
Earlier, Liverpool were linked with Fofana after Luis Diaz left. He was seen as one of the most exciting young wingers in world football. But Fofana later said he turned down Liverpool because he wanted to focus on getting more playing time.
“There was interest from those two clubs (Liverpool and Chelsea), but it didn’t get serious enough,” Fofana told Belgian paper HBVL. “I thought about moving, but it’s more important now to play a lot, and that needs to happen at Lyon because I still have a lot to improve. I realize I’ve made progress and now I’m more involved and decisive in games.”