Shakhtar boss sanctions Alex Teixeira January move, holds firm on asking price

Slight change of tune from the Shakhtar leadership, who were previously set on keeping Alex Teixeira until the end of the season, not wanting to jeopardize their Ukrainian Premier League and Europa League campaigns.  But after Teixeira publicly declared that he's ready to leave now, his manager Mircea Lucescu has revealed that he won't stand in the way of the player's ambitions.

"Our president knows when it is the time for Teixeira to go. I don't want to keep a player against his desire. He wants to play in a big championship."

The one thing Shakhtar aren't budging on however is the asking price, which remains a solid €50m (£38m) as before.  Liverpool are finding this out quickly for themselves as well, having seen bids of £23m and £28m rejected.

"He's worth €50m. He's incredible, very fast, very good technique. I compare him with other players of the same age who changed [the fortunes of] a club, Di Maria for example at Paris Saint-Germain. Teixeira can be at the same level, better even. He doesn't get injured, and every year he gets better and better."

-Mircea Lucescu; source: FourFourTwo

That Di Maria line has made an appearance before as well.  Safe to say, it will indeed take at least €50m to grab Teixeira, who did not take part in yesterday's friendly probably due to a minor hamstring tweak.  Can either Chelsea or Liverpool do it in the next six days?  We are (probably) set for a nice windfall from the impending sale of Ramires...hmmm...

(Though, again, we've maintained all along that there will be no major signings this January, which does make sense if we're waiting to tailor the squad to whoever may be taking over as manager in the summer.  Not to mention, even in these inflated times, €50m is a LOT of cash for someone not named, say, Paul Pogba.)