Cardiff’s fruitless chase for Gory is revealed
AN incredibly detailed blowby-blow account of Alimami Gory’s failed move to Cardiff City this summer has been revealed by French media.
Reports surfaced that the Bluebirds were interested in recruiting the winger, who can also play up front, from French tier two side Le Havre before the window closed last week.
Initial reports suggested Cardiff made contact with Le Havre at the end of July when Neil Warnock was keen on reinforcing his attacking options ahead of the new Championship season.
It is claimed Monaco-based JeanMarc Goiran, who is said to be an advisor to the Welsh club, contacted Le Havre’s general director, Pierre Wantiez, to inform them of Cardiff’s interest in the 22-year-old.
Goiran was then given Gory’s agent’s number in order to get the ball rolling over a potential transfer before the two clubs then began negotiations.
It is claimed, in L’Equipe’s hugely detailed analysis, Le Havre then asked Gory’s agent to convince the forward to move to the Welsh capital.
It is thought the player, who has scored 16 goals in 81 appearances for his club, harboured no interest in leav
ing the north of France initially, but after hearing that Cardiff were in for him, his interest was piqued.
Gory saw that as an opportunity to fulfil an ambition of playing in the Premier League, with Cardiff among the favourites to get promoted back to the top flight again this season.
The Championship club then tabled an offer of around £1.4million, which was immediately knocked back with Le Havre valuing their player at around £3.2m.
The Bluebirds then reportedly returned to the table with a bid of around £1.8m, with the caveat of a further £700,000 if Gory helped the club gain promotion back to the Premier League. That offer is also said to have entitled Le Havre to 20 percent of any future transfer fee if the player was sold on by Cardiff.
The French club were given a deadline of August 3 to respond to Cardiff’s offer, but a Welsh source told L’Equipe correspondence subsequently went cold and they didn’t reply.
Cardiff then chased up Le Havre, who responded only to tell them that they had received the offer, but the deal appeared to have hit an impasse.
L’Equipe claim Gory then tried to engineer a move to south Wales himself and sat out of Le Havre training so he didn’t ‘disturb the group’ while the situation was ongoing.
He then is said to have sent ‘friendly and respectful’ text messages to his club’s president Vincent Volpe and further outlined his desire to move to the Championship, but it is claimed that Volpe never replied.
The French outlet say that Volpe, after receiving Gory’s text, then accused Cardiff of tapping up their player, which Goiran has categorically denied.
Le Havre reportedly got back to Cardiff and offered them a take-it-orleave-it opportunity to table a £2.3m bid for their attacker, but Cardiff are said to have been put off by the Ligue 2 side’s negotiating tactics and any potential deal was then off.
Cardiff City declined to comment when contacted by the Western Mail.
L’Equipe conclude by saying Gory is disappointed a move to Cardiff did not transpire, but has since moved on, returned to training and has smoothed things over with manager Paul Le Guen.