Couhaib Driouech, Ricardo Pepi
EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS – OCTOBER 21: Ryan Flamingo, Couhaib Driouech, Dennis Man Ricardo Pepi of PSV during UEFA Champions League League Phase MD3 match between PSV and SSC Napoli
Fulham were keen on signing PSV Eindhoven’s Ricardo Pepi in the winter market and made multiples offers.
The English club first offered €25m and then returned with a €35m bid at the end of the window.
Earlier this month, PSV technical director Earnie Stewart explained there wasn’t sufficient time to find a replacement for Pepi. This convinced them to reject Fulham’s late offer.
On February 6th, Sport Witness covered claims from the Netherlands suggesting that a tax issue may have paused Fulham transfer.
Fulham not giving up on Pepi
The January disappointment won’t put off Marco Silva’s side from making a fresh attempt to sign the American.
Eindhovens Dagblad, a newspaper local to PSV, now brings the latest updates on Fulham’s ongoing interest.
Pepi suffered an arm fracture in January and is now close to returning to the pitch. He has been on the sidelines for close to five few weeks and only training with the squad for the first time on Thursday.
This won’t be the only good news for the 23-year-old as he could be on his way to London in the summer.
ED state Fulham and PSV are ‘heading towards a deal’ and explain why that is the case.
Transfer agreement not ‘far off’
Fulham have informed the Eredivisie side of their willingness to offer a lot of money for him. According to the report, PSV are expecting a fee of around €35-37m, and it looks like that’s ‘almost enough’, likely for an agreement.
As things stand, PSV haven’t signed anything with Fulham over Pepi’s transfer but the ‘deal doesn’t seem far off either.’
Should the two clubs agree terms for Pepi to arrive at Fulham in the summer, ED insist it won’t have an impact on PSV’s current season.
Pepi has scored 11 goals and contributed two assists from 22 matches in all competitions this season. His aim is to help PSV, who are currently leading the table, to win the title this season.
The American could replace Raúl Jiménez at Fulham as the latter could leave Silva’s side when his contract expires in June.