ENGLISH Premiership side Watford have rejected a £38m bid for Super Eagles striker Odion Ighalo from free-spending Chinese clubside Shanghai SIPG insisting that they intend holding on to the player for now.
Last season, Ighalo, 26, scored 17 goals in his first top-flight in the Premiership and was reputed to be one of the most fearsome strikers in the league but towards the end of the season, his goals dried up. In 2015, Ighalo turned down a £300,000-a-week deal in China in order to stay in England and instead signed a five-year deal at Watford.
Now, the Chinese are back and hope to lure him away ahead of the commencement of the new season. In February, Watford concluded plans to purchase Nigerian striker Isaac Success from Granada in the Spanish La Liga as a replacement for Ighalo who they were certain would leave at the end of the season.
Shanghai SIPG broke their transfer record this week when they signed Brazilian Hulk from Zenit St Petersburg for £46.1m. They were hoping to sign Ighalo and play the two as a striking partnership but Watford's owner Giampaolo Pozzo, has made it clear he is not considering selling the striker.
Shanghai, who are managed by the former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, also have the former Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan in their squad. They are fourth in the Chinese Super League after 15 games, 12 points behind the leaders Guangzhou Evergrande.
Watford have already rejected a bid for another forward, Troy Deeney, from Leicester City with Mr Pozzo adamant he wants to hold on to both players. A surprise package last season, Watford, who have a new manager in Walter Mazzarri, after Quique Sanchez Flores left the club and kick off the Premier League season against Southampton on 13 August.
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