Jose Mourinho makes £15.5m Diego Llorente call amid Leeds United agreement
Jose Mourinho has deemed Diego Llorente’s £15.9million price tag too “excessive” as Roma look to land the Leeds United defender permanently, according to ASRomalive.
The 29-year-old has impressed the former Chelsea boss and it appears the Serie A club are keen to make the move permanent in the summer.
However, ASRomalive claim (21 April) that Mourinho won’t dish out the £15.9million clause which has been included in his loan agreement.
According to Il Romanista (17 April), despite the original price, it’s understood Leeds would be “unlikely” to turn down £13.2million for the defender.
Makes sense
This is a move which makes sense for all concerned. Llorente wasn’t performing at Elland Road, and, quite frankly, couldn’t keep up with the pace of the Premier League. He’s at an age where a move to a league with a slower tempo is probably the right decision.
Leeds must be clever in this negotiation. Roma clearly want the player and the Whites are keen to recoup a transfer fee. However, they won’t want to risk the Serie A side walking away from the deal.
£13.2million seems a fair price for a player who is well past his best but contracted to Leeds for a considerable amount of time. The decision to offer the Spaniard a new deal seems like a smart one, with the club now set to profit at the end of the season. For once Victor Orta and the board probably deserve a bit of praise.
After the Jean-Kevin Augustin saga, the board will be hanging onto any piece of positive news they can get their hands on.
In other Leeds United news, Chris Sutton has predicted the result between the Whites and Fulham in their Premier League clash on Saturday (22 April).