Are the Portuguese Big Three struggling to sell this window?

We are well into the summer transfer window now, yet the Portuguese Primeira Liga, as a whole, are yet to see a single player depart for a considerable sum of money.

The Portuguese top flight is renowned for being something of a ‘selling’ league; in the European market, Portugal has settled in its role as something of a ‘feeder’ nation for some of the more financially well-off national divisions across the continent.

The likes of England, Spain and France often dip into the Portuguese market to recruit some of the most lucrative assets plying their trade in the nation, yet this window, as yet, that simply has not been the case - and it could be the coronavirus pandemic at work.

Indeed, you may look at the transfer market and think that everything is pretty normal. You see Jadon Sancho linked with a big-money move to Manchester United, Chelsea spending wildly, Lionel Messi having come tantalisingly close to potentially pulling off a stunning move away from Barcelona, and even Benfica spending huge sums of money, having even heavily targeted Edinson Cavani. But the truth is that the market has taken a significant hit this campaign - and it is having a pretty hefty impact on some of the biggest clubs in Portugal.

Benfica are not being affected too much - Champions League football last season and the sale of Joao Felix means that, financially, they are pretty secure, and have pulled off some stunning signings. Darwin Nunez, who has arrived at the Lisbon club for a club record fee, is only the latest addition mde by Benfica, following on from the likes of Jan Vertonghen, Everton Cebolinha, Pedrinho and Waldschmidt as they look to build a highly competitive squad. But they will almost certainly need to sell some players this window to make up for their impressive transfer exploits, and that simply has not happened at all yet, with no departures of note yet taking place.

It’s the same story for Sporting and Porto. Both clubs are in a position of needing to sell before strengthening their squads significantly - and both have only, so far, managed to recruite players from within the domestic game.

Sporting, for example, have invested some sums this season, recruiting Pedro Goncalves from Famalicao for 7 million euros and Nuno Santos from Rio Ave in exchange for a couple of million euros and two players in an exchange deal, but while they are two very promising signings, they are surely not going to be enough to close the gap on Benfica and Porto to mount a serious title challenge.

Sporting, therefore, are looking to offload a couple of their biggest assets in Acuna and Palhinha to strenghten further - but because clubs know they are looking to sell, and because of the current state of the market, they haven’t had suitors offering sufficient sums for either player, and they may end up being forced to sell Jovane Cabral if they want to make some of their dream transfer targets a reality.

Porto, meanwhile, have several key players entering their last year of contract, yet offers for them have been in short supply. Alex Telles, Otavio, Tiquinho Soares, Moussa Marega and Sergio Oiveira are among the players who see their contracts expire in the summer of 2021, but no sufficient offers have arrived for any of them. Then there’s Danilo Pereira who expected to leave this summer, but still remains at the Portuguese champions.

Porto, like Sporting, have strengthened this season - but again have only signed players from within the Portuguese league system. Carraca and Claudio Ramos both arrived on free transfers from Boavista and Tondela respectively, while Zaidu Sanusi and Mehdi Taremi, from Santa Clara and Rio Ave, commanded transfer fees, but nothing that was gonig to break the bank. Their spending pales in comparison to that of Benfica - and it is because they are weighing up the possibility of selling a couple of lucrative assets before committing more funds to transfer spending. So far, those sales simply haven’t happened yet.

And how many high profile departures from the Portuguese league have we actually seen this transfer window? Francisco Trincao from Braga to Barcelona is really the only one - and that one was confirmed to be happening all the way back in February, before the Covid-19 crisis had really taken hold in Europe and completely shifted the state of play in the continent. Other than that, there’s been no big-money signings made by foreign clubs for player plying their trade in Portugal and the Primeira Liga.

Therefore, it may well be difficult for Porto and Sporting to be able to strengthen significantly this summer with the market as it is - and the coronavirus has surely played a role in the limited spending this window - with Benfica and Chelsea, the latter having had many funds in reserve after a lengthy transfer ban, perhaps the two major exceptions.

There’s time for the situation to change of course, and the window remains open all the way until mid-October, but it does pose a slight issue that spending on the level of before is, for the large part, no longer taking place.

Marcos Acuna. Photo author: Agencia de Noticias ANDES. License link.