A near-unprecedented situation surrounding Pape Gueye, who signed for Watford earlier this week, has been developing over the last 24 hours.
Watford switch
Gueye, a 21-year-old defensive midfielder, has emerged as one of French football’s standout youngsters this season.
After first beginning to showcase his talents across limited senior minutes in 2018/19, the Le Havre man, who has spent his entire career to date on the books of the Normandy-based outfit, subsequently exploded onto the scene with a number of standout displays to this point in the current campaign.
Before the season was curtailed by the COVID-19 outbreak, Gueye had managed appearances in all but 3 of his side’s Ligue 2 outings.
The Frenchman has also featured for Les Bleus at both U18 and U19 level.
As such, with Gueye’s contract with Le Havre due to expire this summer, rumours of interest on the part of some of Europe’s top clubs had inevitably begun to circulate over recent months.
Arsenal were one outfit named as keen suitors of the midfielder earlier this year.
This was until this past Wednesday, though, when, in something of a bolt from the blue, one of the Gunners’ Premier League rivals announced a deal for Gueye.
The club in question were Watford, who released an official statement, confirming that the 21-year-old had put pen-to-paper on a 5-year deal at Vicarage Road, ahead of his arrival in July.
✍️ #WelcomePape
— Watford Football Club (@WatfordFC) April 29, 2020
‘Anomalies’
As outlined above, however, despite the transfer having already been announced, Gueye’s Hornets switch now appears to be in doubt.
This comes after the Frenchman’s agent confirmed that he and his team are looking into ‘irregularities’ in Gueye’s Watford contract, which was signed under the watch of his now former representatives:
‘We are questioning a few things regarding possible irregularities around the signing of his contract,’ Pierre-Henri Bovis explained during an interview with L’Equipe.
‘We do not deny the existence of an agreement with Watford done through Pape Gueye’s former agent, but we point the finger at what could be anomalies.’
Quotes via Sport Witness.
Bovis’ revelation, meanwhile, has since been followed by further claims on the part of Fabrice Hawkins, a journalist for Radio France.
Hawkins goes a step further, by insisting that Gueye ‘no longer wants to go to Watford’.
This comes amid apparent fears on the part of the youngster that he will be immediately loaned out to Serie A outfit Udinese.
In fact, it appears as though Gueye now wants to remain in his home country of France.
The problem, however, is that he has already committed to a contract with Watford, which is said to have been signed all the way back in January.
⚽️ Dossier Pape #Gueye
Le joueur ne veut plus aller @WatfordFC où il craint d’être prêté dans la foulée à l’ #Udinese. PG aimerait rester en France. Problème : il a signé un contrat de 5 ans avec le club anglais en janvier.#HAC #Watfordfc pic.twitter.com/PJHxlXyNBb— Fabrice Hawkins (@FabriceHawkins) May 1, 2020
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