The Premier League side already have Agudelo’s services come the end of his contract, but manager Mark Hughes wants the player to leave the Revs early.
SoccerByIves reports MLS have turned away a an offer of $750,000 (£500,000) from Stoke City for the immediate signing of Juan Agudelo.
The New England Revolution striker signed a pre-contract with Stoke earlier this summer, meaning that he will join the Premier League side in January when his current contract expires.
However, the Potters are keen on signing the player immediately, and so have lodged a bid to try and convince the league to let the player leave early – and it has been rejected out of hand.
Under MLS statute, when a player has less than one year remaining on his contract and a transfer offer is made, the league has final say on whether or not a bid is accepted. Evidently MLS regard four more months of Agudelo as more valuable than half-a-million pounds.
Sources also claim that this is the second bid from Stoke to be rejected.
Stoke were unfortunate to lose their opening league game of the season 1-0 to Liverpool, with Jonathan Walters missing a penalty in the dying minutes, and scraped their second game of the season 2-1 against Crystal Palace. Early season form would suggest that manager Mark Hughes is desperate to bring in the dynamic young attacker as soon as possible to inject some life into a team that he is still trying to stamp his brand upon.
Losing Agudelo was already bad enough news for the Revs, and this sudden increase in interest will be even less welcome.
Head coach Jay Heaps will be relieved that the league were so quick to reject Stoke’s first offer, he will no doubt be praying that they can hold on to Agudelo for the remainder of their playoff run.
Heap’s side are currently residing in the final Eastern Conference playoff spot on virtue of goal difference. With Agudelo proving to be the side’s best player in recent weeks, and with three goals in his last two games, could the Revolution make it to the post-season without him?
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