Ex Oriente Lux - Iacere FC Twente [R]

Portuguese press says Ola John will move to Benfica for 6 million euros (which means he'll probably move to porto for 5).

http://www.record.xl.pt/Futebol/Nacional/1a_liga/Benfica/interior.aspx?content_id=755849

Portuguese fans are already taking the piss (His name translates as 'Hello John')

Can you confirm the move?

'Hello John' haha never thought about it.
I prefer to look the cat out of the tree (Dutch expression , meaning waiting some time before judging and sing halleluja). Players are being hyped after they've played 10 good matches. And that in down-to-earth Holland.

Don't know if he's going...from what I've seen his good, fast and physical strong. The Dutch football press only quotes Portuguese at the moment. The chairman of Twente states that 'he can't make any promises to the fans that the golden triangle (John, Chadli, Luuk de Jong) will stay'.
But they could better buy Boerrigter from Ajax, imo more exceptional.

Boerrigter is too injure prone, or he is being coached the wrong way, but I think it is the first.

It is some kind of back problem. The papers said it was a small fracture in one of the vertebraes that just takes time to heal. I don't know whether he re injured it or not near the end of the season. He's really a good right winger and maybe he needs to take some Yoga classes to help heal his back!

Twente a bit in a free fall. They now lost from RKC at home and are out of the play offs.

I am curious if Steve is able to start the second season. I think he has showed in his second spell the magic is over and I am pretty convinced that Adriaanse would have done better in Europe and in the domestic league.

Would be great if Kluivert is given a chance, though that might be to early.

Let's just hope they get their act together by the time they play in the Europa League

Doesn't look like that's going to happen in 2012. So there's plenty of time.

geezs, what a bad performance and results with RKC..totally unexpected, i think Steve wont survive this epic failure...esp concerning it was with the easiest possible opponent :/

Ola John to Benfica for 5 seasons. 8 million euros + 1 million tied to performance.

Lower than the 15 Twente originally asked for, still it's going to be the 3rd most expensive signing in the history of Benfica (after Simão and Cardozo). He better be worth it!

Ooooph. He was a promising one for Twente. Very exciting to watch this past season.

Sigh.

The reports actually are 9 million + bonuses for Ola John. But we'll never know as Twente doesn't disclose transfer sums. If 9 million is true it's a ridiculous amount of money for a player with not much more than half a season of first team experience in the Dutch league, but that's just my opinion. Good luck Ola, do Twente proud.

I'm not going to bother reading back as there undoubtedly will be much mockery. Yes we sucked in the past couple of months but at least we got rid of the glory hunters and we can get back to normal with an all new team next season. Trots daw veur Twente bint, maakt ons nich uut, wat ie d'rvan vindt, lach ons maar uut nee het dut ons nie wat, Enschede dat is onze stad!

No mockery from me. it's always disappointing when your team falls short. I'm glad to have you back posting add I write from Firenze while on holiday. I just missed seeing the Italian cup live since e left Rome the day before.

Ola John you have a replacement for, but you better hope De Jong is not going anywhere. Can't see Plet stepping up to the plate.

We will know soon enough. Benfica is a public limited sports company and the value of Ola John's transfer must be disclosed to the Portuguese Security Markets Commission.

I agree it's a crapload of money, whether it's money wasted or money well spent, time will tell. Di Maria cost us about 8 million and he was sold for considerably more to Real Madrid. And he was sorely missed this season, Cardozo missed his crosses.

So long as Ola John delivers the crosses and does not get sold at a loss, I'm happy with this signing. He seems like a humble young man.

(in - broken - English)

No mockery at all actually. It was really nice and quiet. But now is a perfect time to start.

Yes nice to see everyone back. I am very dissapointed with Twente as well. Hope they bounce back although I prefer Ajax,Feyenoord,PSV as the Big 3. 9 Million is not bad for Ola John.

Benfica is a master of selling players for WAY WAY WAY more than what they are worth. That is the only dissapointing thing,market will be furthur inflated. In 2-3 years Ola John will be sold for 30 Million odd

I don't think we've ever had more money in the bank to spend on new players, even the way things stand now. If De Jong is also sold (he won't go for less than 10 million) we'll have a PSV 2011 type of budget for new players. A good striker is hard to find though.

Twente is a business. While I don't think this move will benefit Ola John, it would be insane for Twente from a business perspective not to accept a nine million offer for an academy player. Still I'll miss the boy. He's been with the Twente academy since he was 10 years old....

Benfica have made public that they've already put a 45 million price tag on Ola John, that's included in his contract. I guess they have plenty of faith in him.

He's a Tukker. What that should tell you is that his mentality is the opposite of the big mouthed typical Dutch footballer.

That doesn't go up for their fans oddly enough

I'm cracking up over the Dutchism in your post. "That doesn't go up" whahahahaaaaaaaaaa

Now the monkey comes out of the sleeve.

Rumour has it that Twente is negotiating a player swap with Tottenham. We sell them Luuk de Jong for cash + Giovanni dos Santos.