Villarreal see new Zambo Anguissa bid rejected by Fulham

I really don’t understand why we are still involved in these negotiations, but Sky Sports are reporting that Fulham have rejected a €25m offer for Zambo Anguissa from Villarreal. Per the terms of his loan last season, we had the option to pay that same sum for him to acquire him permanently but the money would have had to have been paid up front. Presumably, Villarreal are then negotiating to have this spread out over installments, which of course makes perfect sense in the COVID-19 economy.

However, it also doesn’t make sense for Fulham to accept such an offer, having secured at least £135m over the next three years by earning promotion to the English Premier League, and much, much more if they stay up- which Zambo would help them do. They are not pressed for cash, so if we cannot hit the entire clause up front they have no reason to negotiate.

For this reason, primarily, I don’t see why Villarreal is still negotiating. They have already added two central midfielders this offseason, and with Manu Morlanes still in the side, we have five players (minimum) to fill what will likely be three spots. If we do feel pressed to add another, I would imagine Morlanes would have to be moved either on loan or through a sale. If we could get Arsenal to agree to a loan-to-buy deal for Guendouzi (who Emery has worked with and thinks very highly of) it seems to like a more feasible economic situation that paying what would be the equivalent of our record transfer fee entirely up front for Zambo.

As is, it us unclear exactly what role Anguissa would fill in Emery’s preferred 4231. Perhaps he would be in the Ever Banega ‘10’ role? He can certainly progress the ball at that level. I think if you sat Zambo in a pivot below the 10 he wouldn’t have room to do what he does best in terms of covering ground. A 433 would presumably fix such a problem, with Parejo and Zambo side by side as complementary ‘8s’, but with there still being no CB signed this summer I just don’t see central midfielder as the current priority.

Hopefully, these rumors will resolve themselves soon, as I really don’t see them going anywhere productive, we should probably stop wasting our time.