Following Rafa Benitez’s departure from Newcastle United, Sky Sports has claimed that one of his possible replacements could be Sérgio Conceição.
The Portuguese manager has just won a league title for Porto, and would be one of the names in the list to take charge of the Magpies for next season. The report said he was ‘interested’ in the job.
We thought we would only see the Portuguese press covering these claims today, but it turns out that we have three different versions of this story, each one of them with their own information.
Let’s start with O Jogo, a Porto-based newspaper, who has the shortest story. They say Conceição has actually not been contacted by Newcastle United so far.
It’s claimed the manager’s answer has been the same he’s given to other teams, pointing to the fact that he currently has a €20m release clause at Porto.
A Bola doesn’t say how Conceição reacted to the contact, but claims that Newcastle’s approach is ‘completely factual’, since they acknowledge the manager’s good campaign in the Portuguese League and the Champions League last season.
And newspaper Record brings the strongest version. They claim that Sérgio Conceição has actually turned down Newcastle United.
Record say information they’ve been given would be in direct contrast to Sky Sports, since the manager is not interested in moving to the Magpies.
Record writes that Conceição has been ‘effectively approached’ but ‘refused to start talks’. It’s said that despite his problems at Porto, where he’s losing some important players this summer, he’s still excited for next season.
The newspaper adds that Porto’s board considers Conceição’s departure ‘impossible’, and had he said yes to Newcastle, they would demand the €20m release clause be paid.
