Queens Park Rangers of England winger, Bright Osayi-Samuel has been confirmed in a deal that will take him to Club Brugge of Belgium, as the coach at his current base, Mark Warburton says he is already preparing for life without the buzzing forward in his squad, megasportsarena.com reports.
With that in view, Warburton took a strong technical decision to leave the 22-year-old Osayi-Samuel out of last Saturday’s seven-goal thriller against Millwall at Loftus Road, despite the Super Eagles’ new invitee having trained with his club mates on Friday.
Incidentally, the fellow-Nigerian forward Osayi-Samuel is set to replace at Brugge, Emmanuel Dennis Bonaventure was also missing from action last weekend, as he stayed away from the Belgian champions’ pre-season friendly against KAA Gent on Saturday.
Club Brugge have already started preparing ground for Bonaventure’s exit, after QPR accepted a bid of five million Euros for Osayi-Samuel to replace him at the Belgian club, while his 22-year-old compatriot has been linked with several English Premier League clubs and SC Napoli of Italy.
Het Nieuwsblad reported that Bonaventure missed Saturday’s friendly, which Brugge lost 3-2, because of his impending transfer, which is in contrast with initial speculation that he was ruled out of the action as a precaution over an injured ankle.
Club Brugge now hope to net at least 20 million Euro for Bonaventure, who cost them only 1.3m Euro about three years ago, as they lay ground for the arrival of Osayi-Samuel, who is said to have snubbed offers from Leicester City and Brighton in order to seal the move to Belgium.
Although Brugge tabled only five million Euro for Osayi-Samuel, QPR have accepted the offer, after they first rejected it as a bid that was way below their evaluation of the in-form winger, who then flew to Belgium on Sunday in preparation for his medical and complete the transfer.
QPR consequently dropped Osayi-Samuel from Saturday’s English Championship encounter with Millwall, with The R’s coach admitting that talks were in advanced stage with a Belgian club over the youngster, who left Nigeria to Spain with his family then moved to England at the age of 10.
He started his professional career at Blackpool in March 2015, after which he spent two years at the club before switching to QPR in 2017 and, since joining Rangers, he has played 91 matches across all competitions with 10 goals to his name, and the Anambra State indigene is now on his way to Club Brugge after his solid performances this season in the English Championship.
This season alone, Osayi-Samuel provided five goals and eight assists in 36 league matches for Warburton’s side and the manager declared after QPR’s thrilling 4-3 victory over Millwall that a transfer deal is looming for the lad that has been at the club since 2017.
Warburton told West London Sport: “There’s very strong interest from a Belgian club. Bright was training with us yesterday to start today. But talks are now at an advanced stage and it was a case of acting in everyone’s interests. No paperwork has been finalised but talks are certainly at an advanced stage.”
