PSV Eindhoven technical director Earnest Stewart has admitted that they seriously considered Fulham’s January bid for Ricardo Pepi.
Voetbal Primeur cover comments from Stewart today following an interview on PSV’s club channels. Fulham’s interest in Pepi was, seemingly, chief among the topics discussed.
Fulham have been eager to strengthen their squad with Pepi since last summer. It seems they see him as the long-term replacement for Raúl Jiménez.
Sport Witness have covered their interest extensively, particularly in the January transfer window. Fulham were keen to sign him before the end of the January transfer window and willing to pay big to do so.
Fulham persistence
PSV were not keen and initially rejected their advances. But Fulham persisted, taking the drama until deadline day. Ultimately, PSV held off, preferring to do business in the summer.
That’s okay with Fulham, with Sport Witness covering a report on the 13th that a deal is already being worked on.
In between that, Stewart has explained why they rejected the deal at all. He saw it as the Dutch side avoiding taking the bait from their Premier League counterparts.
Now he’s admitted that they did look into Fulham’s offer. But ultimately, it was a group decision to turn it down at the death.
Looked into Fulham bid
“They had been interested in Ricardo for a while, that dates back a while,” he said.
“Especially from the summer window, when they were also interested in him. That continued. They came back in January.
“Fulham submitted a few offers to us. Ultimately, we had discussions with Ricardo but also indicated our position for this period. We wanted to keep him at the club.
“In all honesty, we did look into it, because the offers Fulham made were made with the understanding that they involved serious money.
“Then you have to discuss it together, and we did that beforehand. You shouldn’t throw away your old boots before you have new ones, so to speak. To go through the rest of the season without a striker… That didn’t seem like the wisest decision to us.”