There’s still no official word from Liverpool, but it seems that according to everyone else the club has completed a deal bringing Iago Aspas over from Celta Vigo and Spain after paying slightly less than his release clause.
The 25 year old forward has scored 12 goals so far this season for Celta, and still has one more match to play for the side, hoping it’ll be enough to keep them in the La Liga, currently sitting at 18th with 34 points, one point behind Deportivo who are 17th.
Aspas was targeted by both Chelsea and Reading during the January transfer window, but Celta weren’t selling, and both teams didn’t want him badly enough to trigger the release clause. It left the talented player, who broke out this season after previously showing great potential in the second division (scoring 23 goals last season, helping Celta get promoted), but only this season playing for the first time in the top flight.
There’s a little disagreement in Spain over the fee that’s been paid for him: His release clause is set at €10 million (or £8.6 million), but Liverpool have paid according to reports slightly less, at around €9 million. Perhaps Celta were afraid of a relegation situation which would have hurt the price they could have sold him at, and decided to go just below his release clause fee.
Furthermore, Liverpool are set to pay the player €1.6 million a season, which sounds like quite a catch for a player who has proven himself to be quite productive on a small team in Spain this season, getting some people thinking that he might be as big of a find as Michu was for Swansea last season, although Michu came at a much cheaper price.