Sporting Lisbon president Frederico Varandas has lifted the lid on the Portuguese club’s failed attempt to sign Nottingham Forest’s Jota Silva on transfer deadline day.
Silva had been in line for a return to Portugal after 12 months at the City Ground.
He was on the radar of Sporting for much of the transfer window and they were particularly keen on snapping him up as the cut-off neared.
The arrival of Dilane Bakwa Trentside on Monday will have pushed Jota further down the pecking order with the Reds. But a potential exit collapsed due to Jota not being registered in time.
“He was a player identified by our coach with the intention of adding depth to the squad, and this request was valued by Sporting’s structure,” said Varandas.
“We decided that Jota was one of the targets of this transfer market, and this obviously required a certain financial effort. Jota was non-negotiable practically the entire market, as they were asking for around €15m, to which we, the board and the coach, said no.
“Nottingham Forest received an offer from Botafogo of €19m for Jota. We informed our coach that he had always been aware of the process and that there was nothing to be done.
“Then it turned out that Jota rejected this offer, and around midnight, around 11, 11:20, on the last day, he finally accepted a loan more or less along our lines, but not within our range.
“Sporting gave in, we’re talking of something of three or four minutes that there was no time, and we accepted a loan proposal of €4.5m, plus the salary of €2.5m, which would be €7m for the player’s loan.”
“It’s technically impossible to receive documentation, fill out the forms, sign the contracts, scan them, and upload them to the platform in 15 minutes,” Varandas added.
“It was technically impossible. In fact, when we received the final documentation at 11:45, the experienced people in our legal department said, ‘President, this is not going to be possible’, and I said, ‘OK, let’s try’.
“It turned out that after all these dramas, everything was done in 16 minutes, something I never imagined.
“I have to thank the legal department here because I never thought, like many people who have worked at clubs, that it would be possible to receive the documentation at 11:45, validate the contracts, sign them, and scan them. It was technically impossible. We tried, but we couldn’t get Jota.”
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