The European/World Football Thread III

How good is Lazar Markovic and is he fit to be a £25m alternative to Lallana/Shaqiri?

Benfica supporter here, and I can confirm to you that he is worth more than £25m.

He is only 19 (last I checked), so he has that advantage over lallana and shaqiri, and is just as talented. Potential is huge though, far greater than those two imo.

I watched Brazil vs Serbia a few days ago where he was running the attack at times.

Very talented player (and also very important to Benfica) and of course, Chelsea have some sort of option to buy him for 15m, so if anyone wants him, they'll need to be quick (although I'd prefer if you let us keep him for another year or two!).

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Sounds very impressive. Is there any player you could compare him to, in terms of style?

And what about in terms of development, do you think he could slot into Liverpool's team instead of, say, Sterling and do a good job from day 1?

I've never heard of this Chelsea option, that sounds dangerous. Any more info about that?

I really thought I had replied back to you a couple of weeks ago but I've realised I haven't. It certainly is great to see our youngsters looking so good. I was a bit hmm about the whole B team thing a couple of seasons ago just because I didn't really like the thought of them going straight into the Second Division as i thought it would spoil that league to have this bunch in there, but I actually think it couldn't have gone any better. I feel it's also made the league gain a bit more awareness as i tend to find more things to read about the second division now than i used to before.

But certainly, all those you've mentioned have a good feel too them and I just want to add in Toze who was impressive in our B team last season. Although I believe Toze might be off to Estoril if we end up getting Evandro - there are so many rumours flying around at the moment I have completely lost track of this one as I read about this a couple of weeks ago but i think it was only for him to go on loan there. I want to say we won't be stupid enough to go selling him yet but we got rid of Iturbe a couple of weeks ago which to me is a frustrating and terrible deal on our part.

I wasn't happy to see him go out on loan in the first place and then having that stupid €15m buy option in the deal was a terrible mistake, made even worse that we didn't even own his full rights so we made just under €7m for him. Maybe they never thought he would do such a good job in Italy but during his whole Porto career I think the guy has been so unlucky. Just never given a proper chance for us but he's obviously got something in him. Looks like Verona are going to sell him straight on making a profit on their €15m. I guess we can't get every deal right!

Fernando is pretty much gone now too, just waiting for that one to be all confirmed with City as Fernando seems to be on his way to sorting that one out.

Paulo Fonseca back at Paços! Firstly, I'm very happy they won their play-off match to stay up but I did not expect to see PF go back there! A strange one.

As for Portos kits for next season... Those GK tops, that pink kit and what on earth is going on with our camouflage away kit?! I miss the Nike sponsor already.

Anyway, enough about club news it's nearly here! A sigh of relief that Ronaldo, Pepe and Meireles are all okay but we've got this friendly with Ireland in a bit to get through with no bangs or bruises first! I've seen two different sets of team news though - one with Ronaldo and another without...so not sure if he is playing. If he is then fingers crossed he gets through it okay!

I agree, the B team has helped a lot (hopefully we transition them to the main national team soon!).

Iturbe was a big loss for Porto. Missed out on some serious money there, but it seemed like he never fit in at Porto and then was a sudden massive success in Italy. I doubt Porto could have foreseen that Verona would action that 15m clause.

Not so sure Fernando will go to City.. not much is being talked about him in the English media tbf.

Interesting to see Fonseca back at Pacos.. should be interesting to see if he can take them back up the table.

ANYWAY! Moving on to the main topic of this post.. the shambolic first World Cup match..


What a bad start. A thrashing defeat, Pepe suspended for two matches, Coentrao possibly out for two matches as well, Hugo Almeida also went off injured and we didn't even get a consolation goal. It really could not have gone any worse (only if Ronaldo had been injured as well!).

I was surprised to see that we were starting with the Three M's in midfield again considering how they hadn't played together in any of the friendlies leading up to the World Cup. I was really expecting William to start, and what a big miss he was in our midfield. Our lineup was SO SO SO predictable because of that unwillingness to change by Paulo Bento. I bet Joachim Low had the easiest time ever deciding on his tactics against us.

It was just crazy organisation right from the start, even before the red card we were already 2-0 down, so I can't even say we didn't deserve to lose because we totally did. A shame because we are usually so organised defensively, quite shocking to see the way we played today.

The red card really added insult to injury though. We were starting to create chances right before the red card but Pepe completely flushed all that down the toilet with his idiotic actions.

Attacking-wise we were very poor as well and the few times we made good attacks we kept trying to find Ronaldo instead of shooting or trying to find someone else.

I really hope we make some changes for the next match. William has to start instead of Veloso and I'd like to see Meireles dropped for Amorim as well (Adrien would have been very useful right about now). Neto should start next to Bruno Alves and not Ricardo Costa who bizarrely came on today instead of Neto. Neto is so much better its not even funny.

Having watching the USA-Ghana match, I really think we should be beating both of them. Despite USA winning, Ghana looked the better team, but they were poor with their final balls and their defence is also quite shaky. USA were being opened up by Ghana quite often and were lucky that Ghana didn't produce a better final ball and attacking-wise they rely almost entirely on very quick and accurate counter-attacks. Those might pose a problem.

I'll be very disappointed if we don't get at least 4 points from them, but we really should be getting all 6.



Also btw, this link shows an in-depth analysis of our problems with pics, well worth a look:
http://lateral-esquerdo.blogspot.pt/

Hmm.. dunno who to compare him to really. At his best, he sometimes reminds me of Messi in terms of his change of pace and running style (obviously he isn't as good as him). He is extremely quick and very direct with his running which allows him to speed past players quite often.

I wouldn't say he'd slot into Liverpool's team in place of Sterling (I rate Sterling quite highly, I think he's amazing), but if you had Markovic and Sterling on the wings, you'd scare the crap out of almost any defence.

Chelsea have a 15m first-choice option on him. Dunno how it came about or anything, but its there.

So it took a couple of hours later for the next big name to leave Portugal...

Fernando to Manchester City all completed. CMVM document to confirm it all here.

Next up to leave this league...Mangala? William Carvalho? Jackson? Enzo Perez?

Yeh two big losses for the Portuguese league. I can understand leave Porto for man City, but going to Zenit is just sad. Money talks unfortunately in this day and age and they've been tempted away by that. Of course Avb is also there now so maybe they've got a decent project in mind as well.

2.4m is an absolute joke though. Would much rather have just kept him another year til the end of his contract and then let him go for free!

Fernando will be a big loss for Porto. Dunno who can replace him, maybe Mikel from the teams, he looked good a few times I saw him. Herrera has had an excellent world cup too, so he can step up for Porto now as well.

And yeh, definitely expect more players to leave Portugal before the transfer window shuts. Wouldn't be surprised if all the ones you mentioned have left by then!





As for the world cup, disappointing. Played better against Ghana and should've converted more of our chances, and it was good to at least get a win. Overall though, I saw no point in us even continuing in the world cup because of how bad we had been. We would've lost for sure in the next round anyway.

Looking forward to the season now..

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I don't understand how Zenit were able to get him for that much (or little i should be saying!). It really is crazy, I'd be feeling the same as you where I would rather see him stay for that extra season and for him to just go for free next year. Absolute steal for that much though but sickening for Benfica as they are seeing someone who has been one of their best players go for that cheap, so basically no reward for the club in getting something out of him.

Fernando is a huge loss. In the games he didn't play this season there was always that hole in our team BUT I can't say i didn't see this coming. It was obvious he was going and then for us to offer him a contract just so he wouldn't go for free pretty much told us that his time at Porto was coming to an end. It's a shame but I feel it was inevitable with him. Herrera has had a good WC, definitely his time is now to show us that in a Porto kit. I get the same feeling with Quintero too, time for us to get the best out of him too. We've got some good players but for some reason last season it just didn't work.

Absolutely, a very disappointing WC for us. We were just poor, no excuses with the injuries but having to use Eduardo towards the end of the match summed up just how bad that injury list had become. Not great at all and I find it frustrating that Paulo Bento is still going to be around for 2016. I would have liked to start fresh now - get rid of him and get someone who would give the younger guys a go and not stick by the safer option in the guys he normally goes for regardless of their current form. Pretty annoying that I will be arriving in Portugal tomorrow and there will be no Portugal game to watch in the evening so no Portuguese parties ha. Ahhhh well!

But yes, now we look towards the new season and I'm going to say it already... I'll be happy when that transfer window closes. Don't want to lose anymore, especially Mangala as with losing Fernando Mangala just becomes more significant to us as we need someone solid like him in the centre of the defence as we don't have Fernando to protect them anymore. But not just with Porto players, I will be gutted the day William Carvalho leaves as he's been great to watch this season, even with Enzo Perez and Derley at Maritimo. Although he most probably will stay in this league as he looks likely that he will be moving to Benfica, but i don't want him to go there. So, if you hear about someone in Madeira kidnapping Derley over the next couple of days... it wasn't me!

Also, we have a friendly with Everton planned in August - normally I don't bother with friendlies but I'll probably make the effort with this one seeing as it's rare they pop up North and it's only a couple of hours away. I see Benfica are in the Emirates Cup too, so they're in London for you.

Ah nice, you're in Portugal.. Would definitely have been cool if Portugal were still in it. Dunno when you'll read but whatever..

The transfer window has barely started and there have been so many rumours for our players. Gaitan and oblak are the latest on their way to Atletico, who now apparently want the other half of the players that Valencia haven't been linked with.

Have to admit, I don't really know or remember much about this derley guy we've bought from Maritimo, but if he can be anything like the shrewd purchase that Lima was, I'll be happy. Sorry for taking him off you :P

And yeh, it's cool that both of the teams are coming to England. Benfica coming to London again is great, HOWEVER, I'm actually also going to Portugal in about 10 days, for two weeks. And I've just found out that the Eusebio cup this season is on the 26th! I am gonna try so hard to go watch that match.

Not gonna be able to go to the Emirates cup probably because it's a bit of a pain to get tickets for it last time I checked. But I'll be more than happy if I get to watch a match at the Luz later this month!

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And so far Sporting are managing to hold onto William! But for how long will they hold onto him for?

Is it still likely that someone will trigger William Carvalho's release clause at £37 million? It seems like a pretty hefty price tag to me.

His release clause is €45m and if reports are correct then Sporting turned down a €30m bid from Arsenal today. Although it is rare that when we set these release clauses anyone is daft enough to actually trigger the clause, Arsenal (or anyone for that matter) will have to put in a greater bid than that for Sporting to accept. They know they can get closer to his clause for him. I'd like to say anything from €37m-€40m and they wouldn't be able to say no but Sporting know he could be the difference between them competing for the title and actually winning it. He was that important to them last season so although they know the money will be great for them, i think they know holding onto him is more important for this season at least.

It is a hefty price to pay - especially for someone who has only really made himself known to the rest of Europe over this one season but i don't think those who watch the Portuguese league can deny how great he was.


Porto have added yet another loan signing to the team yesterday, Casemiro has arrived from Real Madrid on a 1 year loan with option to buy at the end of it.

Porto have made some absolutely amazing signings. Casemiro can be bought for relatively cheap after the end if the season too. He's a good replacement for Fernando.

Martins Indi is another excellent signing to replace Mangala. And Quaresma and Tello on the wings will be scary.

Seriously cannot see anyone other than Porto winning the title next season. Wouldn't be surprised with a good CL run or even a Europa League win.

Benfica have lost SOOOOO many players, I barely recognised the team that played in the Taça da honra matches.

Sporting look like they are gelling well, so in all honestly I think the coming season will be a disaster for us. Can't see anything other than Porto to win the title and benfica will spend the whole season trying to figure out what is our first eleven meaning we'll lose ground to Sporting in the meantime. So disappointing that such an excellent squad that we had last season is pretty much gone now :/ (at least I managed to see them live once though against Tottenham)

I'm still in Lisbon but I Haven't managed to go to even see the stadium yet, but I am 99% sure I'll be going to watch the Eusebio Cup match! Can't wait.. Hopefully we'll have a couple more of our usual players back.


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