Yahoo News Nottingham Forest owner could ruin Steve Cooper's attempt to land Leicester City transfer target
Leicester City could miss out on the signing of David Carmo as reports from Portugal say Olympiacos have launched a €15m bid to sign the Porto defender.
Two weeks ago, Portuguese media claimed the Foxes and Wolves were going head-to-head over the signature of Carmo, Porto's highly-rated central defender whose stock rose last season whilst on loan with the Greek UEFA Europa Conference League champions. He played every single minute of the knockout stages, including both semi-final legs against Aston Villa and the final vs Fiorentina.
The re-emergence of links were a warm surprise, as when Carmo was 21 he was mooted for the switch to what was then Brendan Rodgers' Leicester team. The club's former manager spoke in detail about the defender's qualities when facing his former club, Braga.
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However, any hopes of seeing a move come to fruition after all these years have been hampered by the prompt actions of Olympiacos. According to O Jogo and Record, they have submitted an offer of €12m upfront plus €3m in add-ons (£12.6m in total).
The suggestion earlier in the month was that the Greeks would not act as they passed up the €17.5m (£14.8m) option placed in his six-month loan deal, so this bid has taken Carmo's English suitors by surprise. Olympiacos are of course owned by Evangelos Marinakis, who also holds a controlling stake in City's East Midlands rivals, Nottingham Forest.
Also, when these links came about earlier in June, Steve Cooper - formerly employed by Marinakis at Forest - was not yet named the new Foxes manager ahead of the new season.
Whether the Foxes will respond remains to be seen, but allowing the owner of their rivals complete this move could narrow down a promising option that would have otherwise been on the market to be the Welshman's first signing in his new post.
