On Tuesday, the president of FC Porto revealed that the only official offer he had received for a player was from Olympiacos for defender David Carmo, while he was not interested in signing Francisco Conceicao.
At the opening of the home of FC Porto d’Arouca, André Villas-Boas confirmed that he still has no offers for the son of the club’s former coach, Sergio Conceição, a sportsman whose release clause has risen today from 30 to 45 million euros.
“The only offers we had were for David Carmo, for whom Olympiakos not only had the right to buy but also an interest. In the end, we did not reach an agreement, but the player also feels comfortable and has been playing well this pre-season.” “We have a good asset who has increased in value last season on loan at Olympiakos,” Villas-Boas said.
While regretting that the market is still “still not very active”, the Porto leader nevertheless admits that Porto are “difficult to negotiate with”.
“We have some financial needs to meet UEFA licensing requirements and expected expenses until the end of the year (…), but at this stage we are relatively calm,” he says. Villas-Boas adds that the club is “in the process of negotiating several structured deals with Porto,” and promises news.
“In the next two weeks I expect to have news for the members and it will be positive because it will help the club’s coffers to recover,” he admitted.
Another positive factor is the number of annual seats already sold for next season at the Estádio do Dragao, as these sales are up 20% on the previous year and reflect a “historic influx” that has allowed “to streamline the debt situation and navigate May and June with greater ease”. “Our work has mainly been to renegotiate the terms of the debt – there have been no miracle savings, no matter how much some commentators linked to Porto think there is Saudi business involved,” he concluded.