As we covered earlier today, the Portuguese press thought Benfica could cancel Erdal Rakip’s move to Crystal Palace to keep him in their squad.
The Lisbon side have lost Filip Krovinovic for the rest of the season, and that would be the reason to call the transfer off, even though Rakip was already in London to be presented by the Premier League club.
Outlet Record claimed that Benfica would make the decision ‘in a few days’, so it sounded like Palace’s announcement would have to wait a little bit to be made.
But well, none of it happened. It just took a few hours before Crystal Palace announced the signing on a six-month loan deal.
Then it was interesting to have a look at the Portuguese websites, who seem quite confused with the situation.
A Bola claims that now that he was announced, Rakip ‘can’t return’ to Benfica anymore. Record still insist Benfica were ‘one step from breaking the process’, but the player ended up making the move anyway.
With the outlets backing up their claims, it seems it was really the Lisbon side who were a bit deluded expecting Palace to wait for the decision before confirming the signing.
