Odsonne Edouard is reportedly looking for wages of £85,000 a week to leave Celtic.
That is the bold claim from transfer specialist Alan Nixon in The Sun as interest in the striker appears to have gone cold despite a £15m asking fee from Celtic.
Strikers remain the most in-demand players in the game, especially in the EPL where securing a 15-goals-a-season striker can go a long, long way to ensuring a cheque for £100m and another season in the top flight.
Leicester were expected to be favourites for Edouard, Southampton is a favoured destination for Celtic players but both clubs have looked elsewhere as Celtic contemplate Edouard still being on the pay-roll on September 1.
In The Sun, Nixon reports:
ODSONNE EDOUARD’S wage demands are putting off his Premier League fan club. The Celtic hitman can go for around £15million and is a target for several English sides.
But the striker’s demands start at £85,000-a-week and rising as clubs look to strike a deal. That figure was the main reason Southampton backed off from the chase last weekend and snapped up Blackburn’s Adam Armstrong instead.
Brighton have also looked closely at Edouard — with Graham Potter an admirer. But his wages are a bit rich as they now search elsewhere for the solution to their chronic scoring problem.
Wages aren’t the only factor is the earnings of current footballers. A healthy signing on fee, annual loyalty bonus, goal and assist bonuses and a cut of a future transfer fee are all up for negotiation.
If Edouard could lower his expectations he would surely have a few clubs prepared to pay £15m to the club that has developed Virgin van Dijk, Kieran Tierney, Stuart Armstrong and Moussa Dembele in recent years.
Van Dijk is the template for all players to follow, after 66 EPL appearances he was transferred to Liverpool where he has won the Champions League and EPL, on Friday he signed a new contract that is reported to be paying him £220,000 through until 2025.