FC Porto invest €3.3m and prepare a calmer, more patient window | OneFootball

With just over two weeks to go before the official start of the season, marked by the Super Cup clash against Torreense, Francesco Farioli has only three new additions to the squad, not counting the youngsters coming through from the academy. Eirik Granaas is seen as an investment for the future, while João Afonso currently sits fourth in the goalkeeping pecking order. André Silva, who required no transfer fee, is therefore FC Porto’s only real signing for 2026/27. It is a very different reality from that seen in the biggest transfer market in the dragons’ history. This time, the strategy is different and requires more patience: so far, only 3.3 million euros have been spent.

There are several targets identified, although it is well known that the market is expected to become more active later on, also due to the influence of the World Cup. Even so, everything suggests this will be the quietest summer of the Villas-Boas era. In the first transfer window in which he “went on the attack” while constrained by cash-flow difficulties, FC Porto signed seven players (Samu, Francisco Conceição, Moura, Deniz Gul, Nehuén Pérez, Fabio Vieira and Djaló), in a deal worth close to 40 million euros. At the time, the club bought only 50% of the Spanish striker’s rights for 15 million euros. The team finished the league in third place and had a forgettable Club World Cup campaign, a scenario that led Villas-Boas to promise the biggest transfer window ever. The president delivered: 11 reinforcements arrived (Froholdt, Alberto Costa, Gabri Veiga, Borja Sainz, Bednarek, Prpic, Pablo Rosario, Kiwior, De Jong, João Costa and Karamoh), in addition to the purchase of the remaining percentage of Samu’s rights and the acquisition of Nehuén Pérez’s rights. Farioli was then given a squad with quality, allowing the dragons to win back the national title and secure a return to the Champions League.

After a season without trophies, the team returns hungry for silverware, but also as the main side everyone wants to beat. For that reason, the quality of the squad will need to be raised. André Villas-Boas and the sporting management continue to work quietly, although the expectation is that the market will only speed up in a few weeks. Even so, FC Porto are not expected to sign as many players as they did last season. “June and July are when the market is most expensive. That is when most clubs protect their assets and ask for higher amounts. This is a market that usually develops later. Because of the arrival of new coaches, the start of pre-season, but also the beginning of those coaches’ own choices, and because of the cash-flow needs of other clubs. It is a market that will become lively in August, in the final weeks of August, when clubs have more urgent immediate needs and then act in the market in a different way,” André Villas-Boas told newspaper O JOGO. Farioli and the dragons will therefore have to wait for news. The fact that none of the usual starters has left so far – only Namaso, Thiago Silva, De Jong, Fofoana and Moffi have departed the club – does, however, allow the coach to prepare for the official start with enough resources to maintain a high competitive level. Winning the Super Cup and making a league start similar to last season’s are the most immediate goals.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.