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Talisca, ah Talisca.

At Sport Witness we’ve been covering the Brazilian attacker for some years. First there was the big spat between Jose Mourinho (then Chelsea manager) and Jorge Jesus (then at Benfica), but we can come back to that later.

Mainly over the past couple of years, English links with the player, currently on loan at Besiktas with a €21m redemption clause, have been with Wolves.

Occasionally, Manchester United are thrown into the mix, and now there’s a claim the player has agreed a move to Old Trafford.

Firat Gunayer, a Turkish journalist who covers Besiktas, has claimed the Brazilian has agreed to sign for Manchester United.

There’s no deal agreed yet with Benfica, who own the player, and the Lisbon club want the best price they can get… from anyone.

Earlier, Turkish outlet Sporx quoted Besiktas manager Senol Gunes as saying: “I am sorry that Talisca is gone, he’ll be a competitor to Cenk Tosun in the Premier League.”

And this evening, Gunes has been quoted in an exchange with a journalist: 

‘Reporter: Can you tell us will Talisca join Roma?

Gunes: I can’t tell. But he could be a rival to Cenk Tosun.

Reporter: Wolves?

Gunes: Look higher.’

In 2014, Mourinho insinuated he would have signed Talisca for Chelsea had he been able to get the player a work permit.

This angered Jorge Jesus, who said: “Talisca is a young star and that Benfica came first once again demonstrates the quality in what we do… they knew Talisca how I knew D’Artagnan.”

Mourinho hit back: “I think he’s close to D’Artagnan, lives and reads Alexandre Dumas, and I admire him for that. I confine myself to my identity, I do not read Dumas. I have a different life.”

Dumas was the author of The Three Musketeers, hence the rather strange exchange.

Embed from Getty Images

In February 2015, Mourinho added: “So I repeat what I said (that he was keen on him and he’d have been in England if not for a work permit). And that does not mean we want the player for something, and it doesn’t mean that we don’t him for anything.

“It’s a logical thing: where is a player in the world today who is detected only by one club? Only if he is hidden in a tomb and found by someone on safari in Africa. Within the known markets, there is no player that is detected by a single club. So I think it’s very good that Jorge has a great picture of himself and that he’s a person very proud of his path and his work, I think all this absolutely normal, but do not mess with my job which I also take very seriously.”

Mourinho wanted the world to know he’d noticed Talisca too, and maybe now he’s signing him for Manchester United, or maybe all the history is the prompt for these claims.

It wouldn’t be a shock, either way.

Talisca is a 24 year old 6′ 3″ attacking midfielder, who has scored 20 goals and provided 8 assists in Turkey this season.

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