Matteo Moretto Transfer Column: Federico Chiesa, David Hancko, Clement Lenglet and Vinicius Junior | OneFootball

Matteo Moretto Transfer Column: Federico Chiesa, David Hancko, Clement Lenglet and Vinicius Junior | OneFootball

In partnership with

Yahoo sports
Icon: Football Espana

Football Espana

·24 August 2024

Matteo Moretto Transfer Column: Federico Chiesa, David Hancko, Clement Lenglet and Vinicius Junior

Article image:Matteo Moretto Transfer Column: Federico Chiesa, David Hancko, Clement Lenglet and Vinicius Junior

Matteo Moretto gives Football España exclusive information on the latest deals dominating the papers in Spain, as revealed in Fabrizio Romano’s Daily Briefing.

Federico Chiesa to dominate headlines for coming week amid Barcelona links

I think that Federico Chiesa will be one of the big headlines during the final days of the transfer market. As we’ve reported before, he is not in Thiago Motta’s plans, and has decided to pursue a different opportunity, and has just a year left on his deal. He can leave for around €15m with bonuses – it’s an affordable price.


OneFootball Videos


Regarding his salary, there are some demands that are being lowered compared to the start of the summer. Part of it is the money, but more than that, it will come down to the project offered to Chiesa. I think he wants to go for a project he is fully convinced by, and in the background is the fact that he can pen a dealon a free with a new club in six months’ time.

His agent is acting as an intermediary between Barcelona and Juventus to see if there is a real possibility for a deal to happen. This is something that was offered by the agent, and Barcelona have him as an option on the table, but no concrete offer has arrived for him. They have resolve their issues with the salary limit and register Dani Olmo before anything happens. In England, there have been a couple of enquiries, but that’s it.

Paulo Dybala decision rules out Roma going for a winger

Ultimately, Roma signed Matias Soule in order to have an alternative. He was clearly a very big investment for the future of Roma, he’s in the Argentina team, ahead of Paulo Dybala, and he has the talent to become one of the signings of the summer.

On the other hand, it’s true that he was signed because Roma were aware that Dybala could leave. That deal has collapsed, no doubt because Al-Qadsiah’s offer was not high enough, among other things. Dybala never gave the full green light for the deal to go ahead, and decided not to do so.

Article image:Matteo Moretto Transfer Column: Federico Chiesa, David Hancko, Clement Lenglet and Vinicius Junior

No doubt if the deal had gone through, it would have eased their wage bill at Roma. Now I think it’s highly improbable that a winger comes in. We were speaking about the likes of Rodrigo Riquelme won’t come in. They need to find an exit for Tammy Abraham, but that’s not down to their finances, and I don’t expect exits because of Dybala’s decision.

Marc Pubill, Hector Fort and the Barcelona right-back slot

With Almeria right-back Marc Pubill, we are talking about a market opportunity, because he on the market after his move to Atalanta fell apart. It’s a situation that is quite similar to that Chiesa. Pubill was offered to Barcelona, and he is an option they are considering.

Barcelona have to sort out their finances first, as is the case with Chiesa, and they have Hector Fort there too. What I’m told is that Fort wants to and is under impression that he is going to stay.

There has been interest from Alaves, RCD Mallorca and Girona, who enquired, but those approaches were rejected, because Fort believes that he will be staying at Barcelona. In the next week, we will see if Barcelona’s plans change. Clearly, if they sign another right-back, then that may change things, but right now Pubill is an opportunity that is there in the final days of the transfer window, but it’s no more advanced.

Atletico Madrid still pursuing David Hancko, but where does it leave Clement Lenglet?

I can say simply that Atletico Madrid and Feyenoord are in talks to see if they can unblock their impasse on David Hancko. The Dutch side continue to ask for something between €35m and €40m for Hancko, and Atletico are seeing if they can get close in order to go through with the deal.

Article image:Matteo Moretto Transfer Column: Federico Chiesa, David Hancko, Clement Lenglet and Vinicius Junior

With Barcelona defender Clement Lenglet, he is their back-up option and he is waiting to see what happens with Hancko. He is prepared to extend his deal and then go out on loan, he already has an agreement with Atletico. There’s not been much movement in his case, and I think he must have other options, but right now it’s not clear exactly what those are.

Saudi Arabia and the enormous offers for Vinicius Junior and Eder Militao

In recent weeks it was reported in Spain that Saudi Arabia were willing to offer a billion-euro contract to Vinicius, and offer something around €400m for him by Marca and Diario AS.

I have no doubt that Saudi Arabia sounded out his camp to see if there was a chance of it happening, but I am not aware of any concrete offers coming in, above all for Vinicius.

Neither do I imagine Vinicius or Eder Militao would be interested – you never know for certain with these things – but I believe it was a bit overblown in terms of the interest.

Article image:Matteo Moretto Transfer Column: Federico Chiesa, David Hancko, Clement Lenglet and Vinicius Junior

Additionally, it’s worth pointing out that Saudi Arabia have not spent the sort of money that they did last summer, breaking transfer records. It would surprise me if they had got as far as those numbers, I’m sure they enquired, but it all sounded a bit strange to me.

Matteo Moretto will be back with more transfer news in the coming days, providing exclusive information on the biggest stories in Spain and Italy.

View publisher imprint