With another market window closing, at least as far as the main European leagues are concerned – the Saudi ‘risk’ remains until the 20th – the main Portuguese clubs can be satisfied: the big three leave with a positive balance and only Sp. Braga spent slightly more than came into their coffers, an amount that would certainly be offset by participation in the group stage of the Champions League.
Still, the off-season financial ‘victory’ was clear for Sporting, even if you take that into account the green-whites made the two most expensive purchases in their history, the Swede Viktor Gyökeres (20 million euros) and the Danish Morten Hjulmand (currently 18 million euros), which surpassed Paulinho’s transfer numbers. The sales of Ugarte and Chermiti and the contract that Pedro Porro signed with Tottenham (among other deals) gave the lions a positive balance of almost 70 million, not counting the percentage the club is entitled to due to the departure of Matheus Nunes moves from Wolverhampton to Manchester City, a value that should be close to three million euros.
And, at least for now (since there are still several European countries that allow transfers), there are only two problems to solve in Alvalade: Rafael Camacho and Eduardo have not yet found a new club and are finally registered in the League.
Conception with more options
FC Porto, in turn, took advantage of the last hours to add three names to their squad: Spaniard Iván Jaime (another good deal from Famalicão, who raised €10 million), the return of Francisco Conceição on loan from Ajax (where the coach’s son could not force himself), a club where Mexican winger Jorge Sánchez also came from, to compensate for the departure of Manafá.
On top of that, the dragons managed to keep the Iranian striker Mehdi Taremi, who was about to leave for AC Milan – a deal taken for granted by Vice President Vítor Baía, speaking of an agreement between the clubs -, something the coach wild.
On the negative side, in sporting terms, he lost two key elements in last season’s starting line-up: Matheus Uribe, who left at the end of his contract, and especially Otávio, soul of the blue and white midfield, who earned and allowed 60 million a positive balance on the accounts. It remains to be seen how his replacements, Nico González and Alan Varela, from Barcelona (who can buy the player back for 30 million until 2025) and Boca Juniors adapt, and therefore adapt to the demand to always play to win. With Fran Navarro (ex-Gil Vicente), Sérgio Conceição now has more options in attack, not least because the youngsters Gonçalo Borges and Danny Namaso also show quality.
Experience and more quality
Sp. Braga, on the other hand, had a busy week, with the aforementioned qualification and the arrival of veteran João Moutinho, initially appointed to Dragão, where he even underwent medical tests, but who still made it to the Arsenal players in time. see how his colleagues celebrate in Greece.
Artur Jorge cannot complain about the lack of experience in his squad, as Jose Fonte, European champion in 2016, was one of the club’s signature signings, along with Rony Lopes. In addition, the management of António Salvador also invested in central Niakaté (1.8 million), in the Uruguayan international Zalazar (5 million euros) and in the Spaniard Víctor Gómez (2 million euros), in addition to insuring Bruma – whether this will be sufficient to resist a candidacy for the title and the European demands is what we will see.
In a quieter than usual season, in which the four leading clubs kept their respective coaches, the truth is that everyone partially achieved their goal: to add value with transfers, to keep the backbone of their respective teams and to get some reinforcements that, thanks to of their quality or experience, manage to add something new for the new season.
Investment of 70 million
In this chapter, and despite losing their top scorer, the National Champions were the ones who invested the most, spending almost 70 million euros to strengthen the squad under Roger Schmidt (with Kökçü, Trubin, Jurásek and Arthur Cabral). in addition to recovering free of charge the Argentine Di María, who returns to Luz as a veteran but with world champion statusand getting Gonçalo Guedes (another comeback, after being injured for the last half of the season) and Juan Bernat on loan.
That should compensate for the games of Vlachodimos, Grimaldo and Gonçalo Ramos in particular, who had the upper hand in winning the latter title.
Premier League clubs are again investing heavily
Spend big and English. Premier League clubs were again the biggest spenders in the first transfer market of the 23/24 season, investing a total of €2.81 billion in purchases, with the two most expensive players within the league switching teams: Declan Rice (from West Ham to Arsenal) and Moisés Caicedo (from Brighton to Chelsea) who together moved 232.6 million euros.
In a top-10 where only one name came in at the last minute – after Paris SG agreed to pay 95 million to Eintracht Frankfurt for striker Kolo Muani (according to the German club, although other sources say the player will cost “only”) 75 million plus 15 in bonuses) -, the formations of the English league managed to put up six names, and this is not even counting other transfers that were made close to the “gong” on Friday night: Liverpool also opened the wallet and shoved up with 40 million from Dutch midfielder Ryan Gravenberch (ex-Bayern Munich), while Manchester United secured Moroccan midfielder Sofyan Amrabat (ex-Fiorentina), only on loan for now (10 million, but with a mandatory purchase option), and Tottenham signed him attacked midfielder Brennan Johnson (ex-Forest) for 55 million.
This particular list is followed by France’s Ligue 1 – thanks to another strike from PSG – whose teams have spent just over 900 million, while Italy’s Serie A closes this particular podium, with almost 855 million, but overall a positive balance. unlike the two leading countries.
More restrained, despite Real Madrid buying Jude Bellingham’s pass for 103 million (third biggest transfer to date), Spain’s La Liga dropped from fourth to sixth (439 million), with clubs like Barcelona, constrained by tight financial rules, favoring loan bets (as in the case of Portuguese João Félix and Cancelo).
The latest record, of course, goes to Saudi Arabia: from a modest 20th place in 22/23 (with an expenditure of just over 43 million euros), local football moved to fourth position this year (846 million). And your market doesn’t close until the 20th…
Source: DN
