Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Italiano maintains Atletico Madrid, Tottenham and Manchester City target Dusan Vlahovic ‘wants to stay and the club wants to keep him.’
Italiano was speaking in a press conference ahead of tomorrow evening’s Serie A opener against Roma.
While negotiations continue for a contract extension, so do the reports Atletico Madrid have offered €60m plus at least €10m in relatively easy-to-achieve bonuses.
“The lad wants to stay and the club wants to keep him,” assured Italiano.
“He is negotiating in a calm manner, I speak to Vlahovic often and at this moment he is 100 per cent with Fiorentina. I’m convinced he will be in future too.
“There are no problems, because the lad is fully concentrated.”
It’s reported today that Vlahovic met with President Rocco Commisso after this morning’s training session.
Having said that, the Viola are still very much a work in progress and expect more moves on the transfer market, after signing Matija Nastasic today from Schalke 04.
“It’s natural that we’re under construction right now and nobody can be perfect after a month of training together. The transfer market is unpredictable, but does not worry me. I am focused only on playing Roma and Jose Mourinho’s players gave me a few sleepless nights. The rest can be resolved.”
Nastasic replaces German Pezzella, which means Fiorentina also need to appoint a new captain.
“I think Cristiano Biraghi can be the man to inherit German’s armband. He has quality and can lead his teammates.”
Italiano had a very attack-minded style at Spezia and is trying to bring that to Fiorentina against Mourinho’s Roma.
“I want to see furore and quality, then we’ll try to bring home the result. We must always have the ball at our feet and try to hurt the opposition. In order to trouble Roma, we must accelerate with both mind and legs. The lads realised that, we’ve got to speed things up and go into this battle.
“Roma are one of the strongest teams in the league, so if you give them space, you’re in trouble. They are also very dangerous on set plays.”