Needing a few sales to balance the books this summer, FC Porto were always going to sell a few players.
However, when the transfer of Fabio Vieira to Arsenal was announced on Thursday completely out of the blue, a few eyebrows were raised at the price.
The Gunners are set to sign the Portuguese midfielder for around €35m + €5m in rather achievable bonuses, meaning Porto should get a total of €40m.
While that’s still a good price, it was short of his release clause, with reports stating it stood at €50m, and the decision to let him go to Arsenal for less hasn’t sat well with José Fernando Rio, a former candidate to become the club’s president, in a chat he had with Rádio Renascença, relayed by Record.
He said: “The financial administrator had already announced the need to realise between €70-100m in capital gains this year, and I was already waiting for the bleeding to start. Obviously, we have to discount the intermediation costs. At Porto, we never know they are high or low, but normally they are quite high.
“President Pinto da Costa has been filling his mouth with numbers, saying that Porto has a situation that allows players to be negotiated only through the release clause, and we see that this is not true.”
With Arsenal getting the player for €10m less than his release clause, all eyes will now be turned on Vitinha, whose contract allows him to leave if a bid of €40m arrives on Porto’s desk.
Rio explained it would be a ‘total failure’ should he go for less, before suggesting the Portuguese club need to be careful going forward.
He added: “I imagine that Sérgio Conceiçao is very angry at this point. He also made public that now Porto is outside UEFA’s remit, they could invest more in the team’s competitiveness; they are starting to see the main players leave. This may have some bearing on his desire to stay or leave the club.”
It now remains to be seen how well Vieira does at Arsenal before fully judging the transfer, but considering the player managed to accrue six goals and 14 assists in just 27 league appearances, there is a very talented player in there.
Mikel Arteta will be rubbing his hands, that’s for sure…
