Over the weekend we’ve published several articles covering the situation surrounding Goncalo Guedes. The Portuguese media have been pushing the idea of the 20 year old leaving Benfica, imminently, and it’s pretty clear that it’s Benfica themselves encouraging the claims.
Since Victor Lindelof to Manchester United broke down, with Benfica again seeming the much keener party during all of that, the club’s president Luis Felipe Vieira has been looking for someone else to give the club a big chunk of money in exchange for a player.
Vieira travelled to China and came back with nothing, a trip which brought some criticism in Portugal given how overtly desperate it looked, and the next stop was London.
The plan was for Vieira to open his jacket to clubs, who would see players such as Lindelof, Guedes, and Nelson Semedo, and immediately write cheques for tens of millions of Euros.
Over the weekend Record have been insistent that Manchester United and PSG have been in some kind of battle for Guedes. For Jose Mourinho it didn’t make sense, with Manchester United well stocked in the young-forward-who-can-also-play-on-the-wing department.
Part of the sales pitch has been Jorge Mendes, according to the Portuguese reports, but the agent’s magic dust isn’t quite as potent as it once was. Several high profile transfers which haven’t worked out, along with the mess at Valencia, have done little to help Mendes look like a transfer god.
Now when Mendes is involved with a transfer, the first reaction of many fans is: What’s the catch?
Record report on Monday that the future of Guedes will be defined today, with the only question being whether he chooses Manchester United or PSG, with him then joining one for €30m.
It’s said to be PSG attracting the player most ‘at the moment’, and Vieira has cancelled another London trip which was scheduled for today.
It’s very doubtful Guedes ever had a choice to make over Manchester United, indeed the PSG claims could also be a fantasy. But perhaps Vieira and Mendes have managed to convince the relatively inexperienced Patrick Kluivert that Guedes is the man for PSG.
He may well be, the youngster is considered to be talented, but this has all looked a little like taking a pig to market.
