Rumours picking up that Everton are back again for Matheus Nunes. Our asking price is still 20M euros
Pedro Marques loaned to Famalicao. Hopefully this means the Ugarte deal is on now. It has stalled in the last few days with Famalicao reportedly asking for bonuses (this was supposed to be a similar deal as Pote, but I think after they saw how Pote performed, they realized if they added bonuses for goal scoring etc. they could have seen more money). Also rumour is that we have a deal to lower the price of Porro with Man City in order to acquire him for less than the 8.5M euros that was initially in the loan deal. We have him for 1 more season on loan.
Another player on the list of flops resolved... sort of. Eduardo loaned to Al Raed in Saudi Arabia for the season. No option to buy, but hopefully he plays well in that league and convinces them to buy.
So with Ugarte seemingly coming in (taking forever), I don't see any more signings coming in unless we make sales. We need a striker and perhaps a top winger but we just don't have the money, and I think I'd rather keep the squad we have than lose any of our core players. Plus we have our B team and academy to grow and get players from. It looks like everything was hinging on selling Nuno Mendes, but seemingly the big clubs are blind, wanting to spend 100 million on English players that are worth half that price. For 50 mill they could get a future top 5 left back. Thankfully being in Champions League gives us a bit more room to keep players, but we would still have to make 1 sale to balance the books, especially with the impact of the pandemic on revenue. With that in mind, who would you sell - assuming no one has the money for Nuno and you had to pick 1 other player?
I'm glad we get to keep the talent and showcase them in Europe this year. Only thing I really wanted was another striker. It's insane to think Benfica has like 8 of them. Keeping Matheus Nunes, Nuno Mendes and Pahlinha will be critical to the ability to compete in Europe and the league. If had to sell one right now, I'd sell Mendes simply because Vinagre looks like a very good alternative.
I’m not holding my breath, but Tiago Tomas is still only 19 and has a lot of experience being featured quite a bit last season. Hopefully he develops nicely this year and provides us with more at striker.
We need more strikers but I feel Paulinho will have a good season now that he is more integrated into the squad. TT is good against the defensive park the bus sides because he wins fouls offensive fouls around the box which can lead to dangerous set piece opportunities. We saw that last year. He also scored some important goals.
If we're expecting goals like Dost or Slimani then forget it, he's gonna always be a flop. He's not a pure #9 that waits for service, and you can see that when he drops deep, sprays passes and acts as a Firmino type of player, who doesn't bag a lot of goals. Look at Liverpool, who bags all the goals? It's Mane and Salah, just like for us it's Pote and whoever plays on the left. If you look at the 3rd goal last game you can see the work off the ball he did. Thats what Amorim wants in his tactics, so I don't see us getting a pure #9, I think he'd rather keep what we have. Unless we have money to get a young player with potential who can play in Paulinho's shadow
Official: Manuel Ugarte joins from Famalicao. The rumoured deal is 6M for 50% of his rights, plus for every 30 games we pay 2 million for another 10%. So if he plays 90 games for us, we will own 80% for 12 million. With this kind of deal, hopefully he has the same impact Pote has (not a goal scorer but in terms of influence in the team). Personally, he was linked to us for so long it was already getting a bit annoying seeing the articles every day about him. I don't expect any more players coming in right now, we still have so many players to get rid of that we don't need. Battaglia, Camacho, Ilori etc all taking up precious salary room.
He is another option for Palhinha at defensive mid? From the 5 min YouTube video I watched....Big....fast....hard on ball...good at breakout pass (I hope the video is more of a representation of his game then just a highlight reel)
Seems like he's a box-to-box, I think he could play next to Palhinha. I agree, I think Matheus Nunes is gone, it's probably the best case scenario though, Palhinha has been a monster.
I think best case scenario is keeping Nunes. Did you now see him all of last year and this game against Vizela? Dude can play anywhere: he has the speed to play wide, he can finish the ball better than TT, he can hold the ball up well in traffic and while being hacked, he can make space for himself. Don't understand the Ugarte signing myself, but whatever.
We need depth there IMO. Champions League, cups will take a lot more out of this squad this year. I don't expect to have a 10 point lead or anything, last year was insane but this year is gonna test the squad. In fact all the signings have been for depth in key positions. Ugarte rotates with Palhinha/Nunes. Braganca in there too but it seems he's a bit further down the scale. Esgaio and Vinagre are huge upgrades over Antunes and Joao Pereira and already paying off as both Porro and Mendes have been injured.
Record says we are negotiating with Mallorca to loan Battaglia for a season, with an option to buy. He makes 2.8M euros a year....
When you realize that we're finally in Pot 1 for the first time ever, and PSG is in Pot 2: I bet $100 we're gonna be in that group... Although TBH, if we get the 2 'weakest' teams in Pot 3 and 4 I might just take that.
What's this I hear Spurs offering 15 Mil for Joao Palhinha? What an absolute joke if that's true. Sporting constantly get look down upon when it comes to transfers. Like we're some pathetic club. Spurs can piss off
Thats just a BS rumour. Although if we actually got a bid like 35 or 40m I think we're selling. Actually no.... Conference League