Jeremy Menez’s move to Ħamrun Spartans falls through, Guillaumier to stay put

Jeremy Menez will not be joining Ħamrun Spartans on an exchange loan deal that would have seen Matthew Guillaumier move to the Serie B side on the same terms, the Times of Malta can confirm.

In the last few weeks, a report in the Italian media had said that former Paris St Germain and Milan winger Menez was on the verge of joining Ħamrun Spartans with Guillaumier heading to the other direction.

The report was published by the website of renowned transfer market guru Giancarlo Di Marzio that said that only the last details were still pending before the exchange came through.

However, the Times of Malta had reported that the Spartans had initially had no concrete offers from the Serie B side and that the deal was being brokered by an intermediary close to the Italian club.

Since then, the Spartans have been analysing the terms being offered by Reggina on the deal and discovered that for Menez to move to the Spartans, they had to settle a number of tax payments.

It is understood that the Spartans are not comfortable in proceeding with the transfer due to the increasing costs of the deal and were set to pull out of the deal.

Confirmation of that move arrived on Thursday evening when the club’s top officials decided to pull plug on the deal.

This means that the Spartans are expected to keep hold of their star midfielder Guillaumier until the end of the season.

However, should an opportunity arrives at the end of the season that could offer the chance to Guillaumier to pursue his career abroad the Spartans are not expected to offer any resistance and will help the player to fulfil his ambition.

The Spartans will be back in action on Saturday when they face Balzan at the Tony Bezzina Stadium.