Brighton and Hove Albion don’t appear to have been put off by Reading’s reported valuation of centre-half target Liam Moore.
With speculation suggesting that we already had two bids in for the 25-year-old versatile defender, Reading were said to be holding out for a fee in the region of £15million according to the press late last week, and Sky Sports were one of many to build on that second bid by claiming we had gone back with an increased third offer.
The third offer was said to have seen an increased upfront payment of around the £8million mark but we had suggested a number of clauses that would at least edge the overall deal closer to what is believed to be their valuation.
With three years left to run on his deal Reading certainly have an element of control on this as it doesn’t appear that Moore has yet given indications of his own about a move, he definitely isn’t forcing it and putting his own pressure on as we often see in the modern day game, so even if we’re getting close to Reading’s real valuation and tempting them, they’d probably think there was at least one more round of negotiating in this.
The question for Brighton is are we now into the kind of money that we won’t spend when it comes to ostensibly what would be a backup player – at least to begin with given Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy’s performances last year.