Earlier today reports started surfacing that we’d made an improved offer for Shakhtar Donetsk’s Brazilian forward, Alex Teixeira.
SkySports News presenter Jim White tweeted the news out to his 227,000 Twitter followers:
Understand #LFC have second offer for Alex Teixeira rejected by #Shakhtar – clubs talking.
— Jim White (@JimWhite) January 25, 2016
While the Daily Mail said Shakhtar had turned down a new bid, thought to be around £28 million.
It seems far more likely, however, that these two sources were misinformed at best, and telling outright lies at worst.
Both the Liverpool Echo’s James Pearce and Goal.com’s Melissa Reddy are now reporting that no new bid was made. Reddy tweeted her news earlier today, while the Echo ran the story in the round up of the day’s key events.
Understand #LFC have NOT yet made a second bid for Alex Teixeira. Valuation between Reds and Shakhtar still remain far apart. — Melissa Reddy (@MelissaReddy_) January 25, 2016
Both of these sources should be given far more credence than the Mail or Jim “I want to maximise ratings for my transfer deadline day show” White.
Reddy was the first to break the news about Allan Rodrigues de Souza’s loan move to Belgium and also led the inital charge when the Teixeira news broke last week, while the Echo’s James Pearce is one of the few national journalists who is genuinely “in the know”.
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For the record, SkySports themselves said today the two clubs are still a long way apart in their valuations, but make no reference of a second bid.
Looks like this one is going to the wire. Lucky Jim.