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| Thursday, 18 August 2011 22:20 |
Farewell FalcaoPorto sell Colombian striker and Ruben Micael to Atletico Madrid FC Porto tonight officially confirmed the sale of striker Radamel Falcao and midfielder Ruben Micael to Atletico Madrid. The Spanish outfit paid 40 million euros for the Colombian striker, with a further 7 million payable depending on appearances and team performances. Portugal midfielder Micael cost the La Liga outfit 5 million euros.
FC Porto’s coffers are therefore boosted to the tune of 45 million euros up front and the Dragons could receive up to €52m in total for the duo. While the tidy piece of business will leave the finances of the Portuguese champions in a healthier state, only time will tell how the departure of a player who scored 76 goals in 88 games for FC Porto will affect the club on the pitch.
Tom Kundert
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- for falcao there is iturbe who is awesome but very young. he plays in a different way but i think it might suit porto as there r no small, super quick players like him. he may take time to adapt tho so hopefully the remaining players step up to provide some cover
- for micael, he didnt play that much and the midfield already had plenty of options plus has recently been strengthened with defour.
For Micael, it's bittersweet. I would've liked to see him break into the starting 11 in Porto and build a better understanding with Moutinho. Then again, Moutinho himself might not be around much longer and Micael has to consider how to best develop his career. I like the idea of him playing in Spain and I do think he could stretch his legs a little bit and stake his claim at a team that doesn't have too many midfield options. He needs to work hard though, because if he ends up on the bench, Bento will leave him out.
Now the question is, who are Porto going to buy? They have a lot of money sitting around and I can't even begin to imagine who they might be after. I still think they can compete well in the CL but I would like to see them add another decent attacking midfielder or striker to help cushion the loss of Falcao.
Big clubs might have taken a peek at getting Falcao, but none were going to dish out that much money. Although I have been a huge critic, for me Hulk is the one that created Falcao's opportunities and now he will do it for someone else.
I was disapointed in seeing Micael go, but obviously Porto didn't see him making a huge contribution this season. It makes me wonder on how he is progressing. Could be a good move for him since Atletico only have Merida as their attacking mid. Yes Reyes does take on that role as well, since their formation is in constant flux.
I am interested in why Pizzi also looks like a done deal for Atletico. It would lead me to believe that Silvio's injury could be progressing slower than expected.
All in all, I think that Porto will be fine with this move. CL doesn't start for them for a while, so there's time to adjust.
I for one, don't think that Benfica's road has gotten any easier.
As for Atletico, they have made moves that I didn't expect or thought that they could have made. Most important they have convinced or overpaid players in order to make them think that they are relevant. We'll see.
I'm also curious to see what will take place with Floran. By all accounts they have to sell him, and he was headed to Inter. The only problem there is that the Eto'o transfer has hit a snag, so if he doesn't leave Inter, Atletico could be stuck.
By the way, before everyone goes nuts, yes JJ is an idiot by making comments in regards to Porto's win over Guimaraes. And I actually think that he shoudl be fined for speaking about another teams game, since he said that it was a dubious call. It puts the whole league and refs in a bad light, and we can't have presidents/managers/players doing that. I don't care if they comment about there own games, but they should have no comments in regards to others.
JJ is an idiot, and he could have been much more affective in his comments, if he woudl have answer by saying; "You've all watched it, you can come to your own conclusions." When the follow up comes, just say; "I'm not going to comment on it further."
Easy and it still leaves it floating in the air. Can Benfica get a public relations person to sit down with him, please.
As for Porto, i believe this will hurt them ...in my opinion Falcao, not Hulk, was their most important player last season, and they are unlikely to be as potent up front now...and losing both AVB and Falcao will change the dynamics of the team no doubt about it. As a Benfiquista i am happy, because I think things will be more balanced now, and should be a genuine 2 horse race for the title. Sporting are moving in the right direction, but will probably have to wait until next season to be real title contenders. An exciting season in prospect, and should be much more competitive than the last one...
Thanks
Brilliant business...
Okay lets get to matters on the pitch. Will Porto miss his him... Of course they will, but if they had clung onto an unhappy striker for a year would they have got much more for him. Going back to last season, Falcao was injured for a spell last season and did not play, even without a suitable replacement Porto still did not lose. With reinforcements made to the front line in the form of Kleber, a long time Porto target, I think that we will be able to successfully overcome this loss. I also believe that another striker will be headed to Porto soon...
I would much rather cash in on Falcao, than lose Moutinho who was the heartbeat of the team last season. Even in games where he got subbed the team lost drive going forward. Chelsea will up their bid to prize him away and Porto will need all the finances they can to hold onto him for another season.
The question of why not rather sell Hulk is debatable... But Hulk is a unique player who is able to attract more defenders to himself creating space in the box for fellow strikers. Hate him or Love him... He is unique and brings something different to the team. Porto would not be able to replace him at short notice...
Ruben Miceal... 5m Euros for a fringe player struggling to get first team action is not bad. The fact that we got Defour for roughly the same price is great business. From Portugal's point of view it is a sad thing, if he could of built an understanding with Moutinho it could have made a great difference to our NT.
Anyway, to all the people saying selling Falcao means Porto have handed the title back to Benfica... You are clinging to straws. Porto were way ahead of you last season and we won't use selling players as an excuse for losing... P.S. check the log, you already 2 points behind.
Great season ahead for the real football fans.
What is strange about Falcão's as compared to Coentrão is that instead of Real Madrid he's gone to Atlético Madrid. Anyone, in the world, can understand the pull of Real, whether you are at Benfica (a great club in the past) or at Machester United (one of the biggest clubs in the world, right now). But Atlético seems harder to comprehend. And of course Porto are in the Champions League and have a pretty good team capable of getting to the late stages of the competition.
Why then, did Falcão decide to leave, indeed he said in the papers he wanted to leave so there's no great conspiracy theory about Porto wanting to sell, although I'm sure they did. It comes down to two things: money, Falcão will be on a millionaire contract, and the quality of the league, everyone accepts that the Spanish league is currently one of the most competitive and attractive league to play on (although many in England would disagree with that assessment). Whilst the Portuguese league has improved in latter years you cannot compare it to the thrill of playing against the world's best players.
Porto will be weaker, but they still have Hulk, and he for me was absolute key last year, the extra edge, if he did go as well, then I would be worried if I was a portista.
Hey tom...i checked out the wikipedia site,,that Atletico have loaned micael immediately to Zaragoza..what the hell??is it really true?you've got information about that?
I'll still give the good to go for advancing past the group stages but you can forget about getting close to that CL trophy especially against teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Who knows? They might just lose the league.
As for Ruben Micael.. I wanted to see him integrated in the national team but with the quality of Tiago he'll probably never see the field again and will fall out of favour with Paulo Bento.
I'm sure they wont be happy about missing out on a CL campaign.
I guess for Ruben Micael moving to Porto was only beneficial to him for winning trophies instead of riding the bench majority of his time there. Good luck to Micael because he needs minutes so we can see him playing for the Seleccao in the future.
As for Falcao, this doesn't make sense to me. This man is targeted by one of the world's best clubs and he decides to join a mid-table La Liga team instead. Extending is contract for more money and then signing with Atletico to even get a bigger weekly pay is what everyone else is going to see it as. I wouldn't be surprised if Man City comes knocking on Atletico's door in a season or two for Falcao.
Either way Porto is making good business there should be no frowns for Portista's because they just sign Stefan Defour who is a very good midfielder and Walter and Kleber as Falcao's replacement.
Thanks Falcao and Micael for an unbelievable year. Best of luck to you both!