An unnamed Premier League club is reportedly expected to join the chase for Panathinaikos striker Fotis Ioannidis.
As reported on Wednesday, the Blues have offered a deal ultimately worth €25 million (£21.1 million) to the Athens club for the Greece international, their second rebuffed bid for the 24-year-old. The latest offer reportedly includes a 15 per cent sell-on clause.
Earlier in the week, Italian reports claimed Ioannidis’s agent had agreed personal terms with Bologna for the player but with no fee set with Panathinaikos.
According to Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, the Serie A club have offered €18 million (€15.2 million) plus €2 million (£1.2 million) in add-ons, while he says it’s anticipated that another Premier League will join the hunt for the highly rated frontman. Another Serie A side, Lazio, could also be keen, according to a Greek report.
French side Lille were reported to have made a €21 million (£17.7 million) offer earlier in the week, while Portuguese club Sporting CP had previously looked the favourites to land Ioannidis, however, they are now understood to be looking elsewhere with the fee Town offered higher than they could match.
Greek sources have indicated to TWTD that Panathinaikos will hope to get the bidding up towards the €30 million mark, a figure which would almost certainly be more than Town are willing to spend on one player this summer.
https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1804093838320926897
Ioannidis was a youth player with Olympiacos Chalkida and Levadiakos before breaking into senior football with the latter late in 2018 and in August 2020, he joined Panathinaikos on a four-year deal.
Goals were hard to come by in his first three seasons with the Athens-based side, netting four, four and seven in the league in those campaigns.
Nevertheless, his form was good enough to see him win the first of his 11 full caps, in which he has scored two goals, in 2022, having already played at U18, U19 and U21 levels.
Last season, Ioannidis, whose father Vasilios also played professionally in Greece, netted 23 times and picked up nine assists in all competitions, 15 in the league, seven in Europe, as Panathinaikos narrowly missed out on the group stage of the Champions League before entering the Europa League.
Elsewhere, former UEFA general secretary and chief executive Gerhard Aigner died yesterday, aged 80.
Although German-born Aigner’s first club was Nurnberg, he was also a fan of Town, his late first wife having been a Blues supporter and he spoke on a number of occasions of his admiration for Sir Bobby Robson’s side of the late seventies and early eighties.