Official: Joao Mario returns to Sporting on a 1 year loan. He'll wear the #17, same as before. https://www.sporting.pt/pt/noticias...0-10-06/joao-mario-de-regresso-ao-sporting-cp I really think thats it boys. I think Jovane or Vietto is going to be the primary option up front as a sort of false 9, as I don't think Sporar is first choice.
I mean... I don't think the offer is thaaat bad. He's a proven goal scorer in the league and if he does well for us and makes the NT he can be sold for 30+ mil pretty easily. I just really don't like dealing with Braga...
Striker should have been the priority since day 1, it's by far the biggest hole in the 11 and has been for well over a year. The fact that we couldn't even land anyone at all is pretty shocking.
Its rumoured our final bid was 13 million + Sporar on loan for a year + 4 million in objectives for 60% of his rights Braga did us a favor
At this point we should sign that LASK linz striker. 47 minutes until the window closes. Lets hope for a miracle.
Window closed. So we made $20 million off Wendel, refused to sign Slimani even though Leicester said they'd let him go for free and he offered to lower his salary, and signed absolutely ZERO replacements for striker. I'm just curious as to whether Varandas is sabotaging this club on purpose, or if he's that retarded. He doesn't actually think he's going to make it through the year as president, does he?
I'd give this transfer window a C. Better than the shambolic window before in terms of signings, but we failed to sign a striker we urgently needed. Joao Mario at least makes it better and some of the players signed seem to have quality and help balance the squad.
In a league where scoring goals in imperative to success, this was a disaster. This incompetent administration and scouting team could only find one 28-year old player to fit Amorim's system in all of world football? F*ckin pathetic.
Pretty happy with all the signings, definitely a more balanced squad than last year and a solid formation to build on. Just wish we had a striker..
Agreed, the whole striker fiasco is shambolic. Benfica: Waldschmidt, Darwin, Seferovic, Goncalo Ramos Porto: Marega, Taremi, Evanilson, Toni Martinez Braga: Paulinho, Abel Ruiz, Schettine, Rui Fonte Sporting: Sporar, Luiz Phellype(?), Tiago Tomas I'd even say Famalicao has better strikers than we do, they got Dyego Souza. I've read a lot of stories about Slimani, that the coach rejected him, that we didn't want to pay the salary... if it's true Amorim said no to him, then he went down a few notches for me. Looking at our overall transfers, I'd say half of them are good signings, 3 are question marks and 1 is already a fail : Goalkeeper: Adan - his experience has shown so far and looks to be an upgrade on Max, who can learn from him. Good signing so far. Wing backs: Porro - him along with Nuno Mendes have started really well and already look like big upgrades, some questions defensively but with the 3-4-3 we need full backs that can cross and attack. Good signing so far. Antunes - already looks like a flop, Nuno Mendes and Nuno Santos should have the Left wing back spot. Flop. Center backs: Feddal - performances have alternated between moments of quality, especially with the ball at his feet, with some questionable defending. Still a question mark. Midfield: Joao Mario - class signing after the sale of Wendel, should provide quality and experience. Very happy to see him back - lets just hope he's motivated. Good signing (in theory). Pote - Looks to be of real quality, just need to find the right spot for him. With Joao Mario, he'll either be a supporting attacking midfielder on the left, or play where Wendel played (Joao Mario recently has played more as a left sided attacking midfielder and could be played there). Good signing Attack: Nuno Santos - scored a great goal last game but disappeared after that. I still think the best spot for him is left wing back, running up and down the flank, I think he can be a natural subsititute for when we sell Nuno Mendes. Question mark for now. Tabata - haven't seen enough yet, for the price though he'll have to perform. Question mark. Overall: We spent 17.5 million euros on 8 players (2 on loan, 2 free agents). That's less than what Benfica paid for one player for example. The deals for Pote and Tabata are questionable in terms of finances, 11.5 million for 50% of their rights? Seems like a stretch. Yet to see their full quality but on paper some of these are good signings. But clearly, we needed a striker. As for sales, we made approximately 40 million with the sales of Wendel, Acuna and Matheus Pereira. I'd argue right now we could definitely use Matheus in the squad, but Wendel and Acuna won't be missed. Overall I'll give it a C, better than the previous year but not great. Let's not kid ourselves, the squad is more balanced but our objective is 3rd place, which is a CL qualifying spot - Porto and Benfica are way ahead of us and unless one of them collapses, our battle is with Braga.
Let's all just hope we manage to take third this season for CL. Qualifying is another mountain for us to climb though... A tall, strong striker who's good in the air would have been nice... well, anyone half decent who can finish would be nice, but it is what it is.
We could always adapt Ilori as a striker.... Apparently Ilori had 3 more offers to be loaned out in the last days and rejected them all. He's sitting on a fat salary and a 5 year contract. Not surprising, the first time around he said he was willing to not play for the remaining 2 years of his contract before ultimately joining Liverpool.
It’s like a complete contrast to our previous squads of the last 10/20 years. We’ve not got that quality talisman striker like Liedson, Van Wolfswinkel, Dost, Slimani etc but we’ve assembled a pretty good team in most other areas of the pitch
I really dislike this guy. What were we thinking bringing him back? I feel like this crap only happens to us.
Dost begged to leave the club. Dude never showed up on big games either. ******** that dude. Liedson is what we need.
Sporting "divulged" in the weekly newsletter a run down of the transfer deals, patting itself on the back for making quality signings at a low cost. While I appreciate the information, they still don't have the full picture. How much commission was involved? Who were the agents involved? The strangest deal has to be Tabata. According to Sporting, we actually paid 500K for Tabata, with Portimonense having the right to 90% of his rights. However, we have the option to reduce that to 50% by paying 4.5 million. Not sure how to feel about this, but I guess if the guy is a complete flop, than the loss is minimal to us as we don't have to pay the 4.5 million. Also, Feddal actually cost 2.15 million euros and not 3 million.