Félix says Morita staying at Sporting is a problem | OneFootball

Hidemasa Morita was very close to leaving Sporting on the last day of the winter transfer window. The 30-year-old Japanese midfielder was wanted by the Dutch team Ajax, but the transfer fell through at the last minute. This case is problematic in the eyes of Nuno Félix, international scout.

"Sporting was willing to release Morita because they believed they had found a solution to replace him with an obvious competitive advantage immediately. When that solution failed, Morita stayed. And he stayed not out of sporting conviction, but due to the lack of a viable alternative. And this is exactly where the problem lies: a club fighting for titles cannot place the stability of its midfield dependent on a single signing, handled at the last minute of the market," he confessed in his column for the newspaper 'Record', titled "Sporting kept Morita and a problem."

Nuno Félix assures that the Japanese player no longer offers any advantageous performance for the team coached by Rui Borges. "Morita was once an important player, but his stay until the end of the contract does not solve the essential issue, which is his replacement by a player who guarantees the performance that Morita no longer offers".

The deal did not materialize due to an unforeseen issue on the side of the Alvalade Club. The agreement fell through because the player chosen to replace Morita at Alvalade did not pass the medical exams, leading the Lions to halt the departure of the Japanese midfielder.

This season, wearing the Sporting jersey, Hidemasa Morita - valued at 9 million euros - has played 29 matches. In the current season, the Japanese international midfielder has played a total of 1,375 minutes, in which he assisted his teammates on two occasions.

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