Lille president Olivier Letang has once again stressed that he will not be taking any offers for defender Sven Botman into consideration in the month of January.
Milan have been linked with a move for Botman for weeks now but then rumours went quiet, but when it was confirmed last week that Fikayo Tomori had undergo surgery on his knee to clean up a meniscal problem Calciomercato.com reported that the pursuit of the Dutchman is back on because a high-level centre-back is needed without haste.
Letang spoke at the press conference for the unveiling of the new Lille signing Ben Arfa, and during it he reiterated the non-availability of Sven Botman because of the important targets they still have as a club this season.
“We are at 19 January and we do not know what can happen between now and the end of the transfer market. For us the important thing is to have a very competitive team because we have goals to achieve,” he said (via MilanNews).
“On Saturday I spoke on the Botman case, saying that we wanted to keep the strongest players with us, and with regards to Sven we have not opened the doors to some negotiations because we wanted to keep him. Now we have a complete squad.”
Meanwhile, La Gazzetta dello Sport (via MilanNews) are also reporting Milan have shelved their pursuit of Sven Botman until the summer because Lille do not want to sell, hence why they are looking at other targets.
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Lille now has form uptake and battles for 4th, maybe even 3rd spot