Today has seen another wave of rumours about Porto winger Sergio Conceicao hit the press, with noted Portuguese football paper Record claiming that Chelsea are among the teams interested in buying him this summer.
Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund are all name checked in the story which claims that new Porto president Andre Villas-Boas is willing to sell the 21 year old in order to fund the start of his new era in the Minho region.
The fact that all those big names are mentioned is already somewhat suspicious. Conceicao is a good player who proved his worth at the Euros as an impact sub for Portugal, but the idea that he’s ready for a move to somewhere like Bayern Munich to compete with some of the best wingers in the world is faintly ridiculous. Chelsea want an elite right winger from what we’ve heard, but we’re not sure Conceicao is that yet.
Jorge Mendes is collecting a list of offers for Porto youngster Francisco Conceição, with #Chelsea, Atletico, RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich all said to be interested.
— Chels HQ (@Chels_HQ) July 12, 2024
A clear case of agent hype
It’s funny that the Record story specifically mentions Jorge Mendes, because in our report on the first whispers of the move which came out a couple of days ago we speculated that this whole story was being fabricated by the super agent, who certainly has his fingers in enough media pies to get the story out there if he wanted.
There’s no way these links would be happening without his influence, in our opinion. Conceicao is a tidy little player but no upgrade on what we already have, and nobody who struggled to make an impact at Ajax in the recent past should be coming to Chelsea if we’re looking to get into the Champions League.
The fact that he has a release clause which increases on Monday does add a slight twist – but even at the initial price of €30m he doesn’t feel like good value.
