The Portuguese media have been reporting again on Crystal Palace interest in Ousmane Diomande since the beginning of the month, with the UK media catching up over the past week or so.
Contact was said to have been made and the Eagles were first waiting for the market to move before going fully ahead with an attempt to sign the Sporting CP player. Specifically, it was reported in Portugal that they wanted to wait and see what happened with Marc Guehi.
The England international’s future has been thrown into serious doubt in the past 24 hours, and that appears to have made Crystal Palace impatient.
Friday’s edition of Record reports the Premier League club have ‘made the first moves’ to sign Diomande. Contact has been initiated to find out the conditions of a transfer, and no formal offer has been made yet.
Despite there being no formal offer, Record state there’s a considerable gap between what Crystal Palace would want to pay and what Sporting desire.
Sporting have the 21-year-old secured on a contract with an €80m clause. It’s stated they want something close to this, which is clear posturing.
Over at O Jogo, it’s reported Crystal Palace are ‘preparing an offer’ for Diomande. Oliver Glasner is said to have given his approval to the transfer, and there’s no expectation the Eagles will get close to that €80m figure. Negotiations are expected.
A Bola, another Portuguese newspaper, point out they’ve been reporting for a while that Diomande is Crystal Palace’s defensive priority, fluffing their transfer feathers as they make clear the UK media, and others from elsewhere, got there later.
A Bola then state the current situation ‘will even lead to the formalisation of a proposal in the coming days, something that, it should be noted, has not yet reached Alvalade at this stage. But it will become a reality very soon, because this attack is real and has… legs to stand on.’
