Italian club’s sporting director travels to “close” deal for Blackburn Rovers star | OneFootball

The 23-year-old was one of the key reasons why the Lancashire outfit were in the promotion mix for the majority of the last campaign, recording 22 goals in 36 league appearances.

He was only prevented from appearing more often by a severe injury setback and call-ups to his international side, with the ex-Nottingham Forest man becoming a hero for both club and country as a real asset for Chile.

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Stepping into the fill the void Adam Armstrong and Harvey Elliott left last summer, he has attracted major interest from elsewhere with Brighton and Hove Albion previously looking as though they were going to strike an agreement for his services in the winter.

However, Graham Potter’s side were unable to finalise a deal and that has allowed Davide Nicola’s side to swoop, though they will have to pay a fee following Blackburn’s decision to trigger a one-year extension on his contract.

According to this report from Di Marzio, there was a meeting with Brereton Diaz to try and convince him to make the switch to Italy, with Frankfurt and Lyon remaining interested in him at this stage.

The Verdict:

This is the type of signing they would have wanted to get over the line in January as opposed to recruiting Sheffield United’s Lys Mousset, with the latter failing to impress under Nicola during the second half of last season.

Even though the Frenchman is available on a free transfer, his fitness problems have made him too much of a liability recently and he will need to work on that before being able to make a good move elsewhere.

Brereton Diaz, on the other hand, has managed to get a decent amount of game time under his belt for club and country over the past 12 months and at 23, he will only get better if he can retain his consistency.

The one concern for the Italian side is the fact he didn’t exactly excel at Ewood Park before his rise last season – but this would be a real coup if they were able to seal an agreement for him considering they didn’t finish too far away from the relegation zone at the end of 2021/22.

For Brereton Diaz, he may want to make a move to a side that are more certain to be in a European top tier for the long term – but he’d certainly be guaranteed regular football in Serie A if he made this switch and this is why he may be tempted by a move.