Villas-Boas on Lewandowski rumour: “A dream dreamt up by fans” | OneFootball

André Villas-Boas opened the door to FC Porto’s current affairs to talk about the transfer market, prudence, and fantasy. In a conversation in which he explained the new working foundation of the SAD, the Porto president framed the club’s recent investment, anticipated a more measured summer, and put the brakes on speculation surrounding a big-name player. In the middle of it all, he summed up the line he wants to keep clearly drawn: “It’s always good to dream about major arrivals.”

At a time when FC Porto is trying to balance sporting ambition with financial restraint, André Villas-Boas laid out a clear course. The club president presented a vision of continuity after a season of major intervention in the squad, but stressed that the context is now different: less urgency, more criteria, without losing sight of the needs identified by coach Francesco Farioli.

When asked to look at the market and the difference between yesterday’s investment and today’s strategy, Villas-Boas returned to the logic that underpinned the last major squad overhaul. He did so without denying the scale of the commitment, but framing it as a response to the club’s competitive and structural needs.

“It was a necessary revolution, a clear injection of talent and a commitment that FC Porto needed to make. Our first challenge, as you all know, was the economic reality of the 24/25 season, which also allowed us a considerable financial return, but which once again forced us to rebuild the team for the 25/26 season and reinvest in the team’s talent,” he said. “So it was a historic market, unmatched in the club’s history, but absolutely necessary for anyone who wanted to be a title contender. I think that if we had reached the end of the 25/26 season and FC Porto had not been national champions, it would be because it had not done its job properly in terms of renewing and investing in the squad. So, a deep revolution, but an absolutely necessary one, which now gives us the foundations to approach the market in a different way.”

The Porto president then made a point of fixing the essential point: the room for manoeuvre has increased, but the breathing space is not total. His message remained anchored in the idea of responsibility, with sustainability appearing as both brake and compass at the same time.

“It is important to be aware that FC Porto’s economic reality is not fully resolved. Of course, its debt has been extended over the long term, so to speak, but we have financial responsibilities. We always have enormous financial responsibility from which we cannot escape,” he stressed. “At this moment, we are working from a different base, a base we did not have last year. A good base, in which we want to keep the best talents in the first team and strengthen it in strategic areas identified by the coach. It will not be a €100 million market, of course, because these foundations allow us to look at the market differently and also much more carefully.”

In this reading, there is a change in tone that does not mean a change in ambition. FC Porto is no longer starting from the urgency of rebuilding almost everything; rather, it is starting from the intention of protecting what it considers essential and changing only what it believes is decisive.

On the targets already identified and the pace of the market, Villas-Boas was pragmatic. He admitted that groundwork has been done, but rejected the typical anxiety of the first weeks of summer, pointing to a calendar in which the most relevant moves tend to appear later.

“Yes, many targets, many of them already identified. I think that, above all, the market at this stage, the June and July market, is the most expensive one and it is where most clubs protect their assets and ask for larger sums,” he explained. “This is a market that usually takes shape later. Because of the arrival of new coaches, because of the starts of pre-season, and also because of the beginning of those coaches’ own choices, as well as the cash-flow needs of other clubs.”

The president also developed the idea of a market that only loosens up when the pressure increases. And in doing so, he also implied the constant tension between any coach’s wishes and the negotiating reality of August.

“So I would say it is a market that will stir in August, in the final weeks of August, when clubs have more pressing immediate needs and then become active in the market in a different way. This sometimes limits a coach’s ideals, because he usually wants to start pre-season with a fully available squad that is already completely assembled,” he analysed. “However, we also cannot fail to think about the way we acted at the start of this 25/26 season, and take into account that some FC Porto players also arrived later, notably Kiwior, who arrived on the last day of the transfer window.”

The picture is that of an executive trying to remove the drama from waiting and turn it into a method. There is no denial of the difficulty; there is an attempt to turn it into strategy, even if that means rowing against the natural impatience of those watching the market from the outside.

It was precisely in that territory, between expectation and projection, that the name Robert Lewandowski came up. Villas-Boas handled the issue with irony and realism, dismantling the rumour and ruling out any scenario that could clash with the financial discipline he says he wants to preserve.

“That’s where the Lewandowski manufactured by the fans’ dreams appears. Starting from the assumption that, because we have three Poles, that would be enough to convince one of the best players in the world and one of the most expensive players in salary terms, and who, as far as I know, is today [Friday] actually signing for Chicago Fire. He was always out of the question,” he assured. “It’s always good to dream about major arrivals. What we cannot have are delusions that prevent the club’s financial sustainability.”

More than denying a rumour, the president painted a picture of his line of action. Between dream and delusion, Villas-Boas chose the side of restraint, trying to show that, in the FC Porto he envisions, ambition only makes sense when it fits within the accounts.

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