Fulham have placed a £90m price tag on Joao Palhinha, according to a report from the Daily Mail this evening.

Mail journalist Kieron Gill calls the valuation ‘remarkable’ but cites senior Fulham sources who insist the Cottagers are using the £100m that West Ham are demanding for their departing captain Declan Rice as a benchmark. Fulham have so far rebuffed inquiries for their pivotal Portuguese international, who led the Premier League in tackles in his first season in England, from a number of leading English clubs and insisted that the 27 year-old is not for sale.

Our understanding is that Fulham have not declared an asking price for Palhinha to any party and feel confident of holding onto the former Sporting schemer, who is settled with his young family in London and delighted to be reunited with Marco Silva. Palhinha has four more years on his Craven Cottage contract – with Fulham holding a further twelve month option – and left his boyhood club, who had qualified for the Champions’ League, to move to England last summer.

Palhinha has made eight Champions’ League appearances and featured twelve times in the Europa League. The Lisbon-born defensive midfielder won the Primeira Liga with Sporting in 2021 and has also lifted three Taca de Liga trophies in consecutive seasons, the first arriving when he was on loan at Braga. The tough-tackling midfielder, who made 147 tackles last term, scored four goals in forty appearances as Silva’s side finished tenth on their return to the top flight and reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup.