Crystal Palace showed serious interest in Sporting’s Ousmane Diomande in the summer window.
This was repeatedly covered by the Portuguese media, and that the Eagles were thought to be willing to make an offer for the centre-back.
Crystal Palace or another club weren’t able to take him away from Sporting this summer.
Saturday’s edition of Record gives an insight into why the FA Cup winners didn’t succeed and the Lions’ current plan for the 21-year-old.
It’s claimed the defender had a few options to leave the Primeira Liga winners and Crystal Palace were the ‘most concrete’ one. They had identified him as a potential successor to Marc Guéhi, who didn’t leave Selhurst Park.
The reports say Oliver Glasner’s side were only wanted to pay €30m, which is half of what Sporting were hoping to collect. Their €60m request was certainly excessive, which none of the interested parties would have matched.
Whether Crystal Palace are willing to return for him isn’t clear, but Sporting are well aware the Ivory Coast international has a ‘strong market’ and could risk losing him in January or next summer.
Sporting want to extend Diomande’s contract beyond 2027. The newspaper reports they have already started talks with his agent for an improved deal and will require a ‘lot of patience’ to reach a positive outcome.