In a quite surprising turn of events, Ipswich have revived talks with Chelsea over a loan deal for Armando Broja, according to David Ornstein.
As recently as last night, everyone was saying the deal was dead because of an Achilles problem picked up on in the striker’s medical.
But according to Ornstein it’s actually a foot injury – one that will keep him out until mid-October. It seemed that Ipswich were spooked, but now they’re back in on the deal, and new terms are being hammered out as the deadline closes in.
We’re not really sure how this can have happened – if they were worried about an injury, what can possibly have happened to assuage their fears? A new scan came back with a better outlook? Or was there some kind of biblical laying-on of hands behind the scenes? Whatever the case, it’s a massive relief for both clubs and for Armando, who is presumably keen to go out and play somewhere.
A curious tale with a positive outcome
Despite this phenomenal back and forth, we’re not pretty confident that the Broja deal now finally gets done. There would be no reason for a late revival like this unless there was confidence that it can actually happen.
Plus of course a lot of the hard work was already done in terms of agreeing a deal. The clubs can just dig out their “ArmandoBrojaIpswichLoanfinal-FINAL-2.doc” and change the date on it. Ornstein says that two new bids have been rejected, so presumably the original loan with a fee conditions have to be changed, but given all parties want this to happen, we’d be surprised if something isn’t sorted by tonight.
We wonder if the real story of the twists and turns of the last couple of weeks in this deal will ever come out?