The transfer market can sometimes be special. Also, when you expect it to be close, done, sealed. The Turkish Super Lig’s market closes 12 days after the European top five leagues market, and this is why sometimes there are surprises — Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United were all approached in recent weeks.
Premier League Clubs Approached for Players
Jadon Sancho in action for Chelsea
Well, in the last weeks, Premier League clubs have been approached for several opportunities. The special case is the one of Besiktas. The Turkish side had been looking for an important winger for weeks.
Their initial top target was Jadon Sancho, and they were ready to offer an important loan fee to Manchester United or even a permanent transfer. But they never had any sort of green light from Sancho, who didn’t want to move to Saudi or Turkey this summer and ended up at Aston Villa instead.
But Besiktas were really prepared to make it happen, if the player wanted to.
Besiktas' president also personally entered into negotiations with Arsenal for Leandro Trossard. The initial proposal was a loan with a buy option clause, with a loan fee worth around €5m and a buy option over €20m. The answer from Arsenal? No chance.
No way to let Trossard go, especially with the market closed and also because he verbally agreed to sign a new deal at Arsenal in August and has no plans to leave Premier League football now. One year ago, Arsenal found themselves in a similar situation with Trossard being targeted by Saudi side Al Ittihad; also in that case, the Gunners said no.
But it’s not over yet because Besiktas also wanted to try a big signing with Federico Chiesa, right after the official decision by Arne Slot to cut him from Champions League squad for the first six months. Besiktas approached Liverpool for a loan worth €5m, the same as Trossard, but there was no chance to convince Slot, Richard Hughes and also Chiesa himself, who wanted to stay at Liverpool, fight for his place and do his best in domestic competitions.
That’s how doors got closed, despite Besiktas' attempts to give Chiesa a guaranteed starting eleven spot in a (possible, that spot is not earned yet at all) World Cup season for the Italian.
That’s how Besiktas ended up signing Jota Silva on loan with a buy option clause from Nottingham Forest; he had agreed to join Sporting, the deal collapsed and Besiktas decided to proceed.