Earlier today, we covered claims from Diário de Notícias which say Everton have Porto manager Sérgio Conceição on their wish-list for the summer.
The report claimed there have been no contacts for the Portuguese boss yet, but his league title with the Dragons has made him a candidate to take charge of the Toffees.
Interestingly, other Portuguese newspapers also have stories on Conceição today, and even though they don’t seem to know anything about Everton, they help in understanding the scenario which Conceição is involved in.
Having an entire page for the manager, outlet Record claims that Conceição is feeling happy at Porto, and is currently hoping the club can make more financial efforts to compete for the title next year.
With his contract running until 2019, the manager would only leave the Dragons in case ‘an extremely tempting protect’ arrives for him. And the club who wants to take him would need to negotiate directly with Porto, because in his contract there’s an undisclosed release clause.
Even though we know the Premier League is pretty attractive for Portuguese managers, and should be considered a tempting project, this negotiation with Porto could end up worrying for any Everton interest.
It’s not a secret that Portuguese clubs are tough to negotiate with, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Porto demanding a big release clause to let Conceição go.
Another issue Everton should be aware of is the competition. Diário de Notícias’ original report only mentioned Inter Milan as contenders, but newspaper A Bola claims there are a few more.
Their story gathers all the clubs Conceição has recently been linked to, and besides Inter Milan, they recall PSG, Monaco and Lazio. And according to their own info, now Shakhtar Donetsk would have joined the race too.
So if Everton are really keen on the Porto boss, it seems the chase won’t be so easy, as there’s some work to be done.
