On Tuesday morning, Rui Patricio arrived alone at Lisbon airport, where the Portuguese sport press camp out at this time of year just-in-case.
Sporting’s goalkeeper wouldn’t confirm where he was going and that obviously led to transfer assumptions, given the rumours around the player at the moment.
Napoli and Wolves have been repeatedly linked with the Portugal international and the timing of the trip fit perfectly with getting a transfer done before the World Cup.
Over in Italy, excitement really took hold and people went a step too far, pretending they knew Patricio was flying to the country for a medical with Napoli.
Well, it seems Patricio has been doing some thinking. According to Calciomercato, the 30 year old has decided he doesn’t want to fall out with Sporting, and any transfer would have to be on the Portuguese club’s terms.
Despite madcap president Bruno de Carvalho going to war with him, despite being attacked by crazed supporters twice in the past week or so, and despite his club being at the centre of a whole load of scandals including match fixing, Patricio wants to be nice.
Calciomercato say Patricio won’t try to terminate his contract, and will instead expect interested clubs to come to an agreement with Sporting, something Napoli haven’t been able to do yet.
That’s good for any Wolves interest, as it’s been expected the newly arrived Premier League club would offer more.
