Fernando Rio, a former candidate for the Porto presidency, has slammed the club’s decision to sell Fabio Vieira to Arsenal.
A deal worth an initial €35million plus €5m in add-ons should certain clauses be met in future was struck on Thursday relatively out of the blue with the Portuguese giants confirming the terms of the transfer.
The 22-year-old, however, reportedly had a release clause of closer to €50m, and Rio was vocal in his criticism, claiming Porto’s decision to accept a lower fee could have an impact on the future of manager Sergio Conceicao.
“The financial administrator had already announced the need to realise between €70-100m in capital gains this year, and I was already waiting for the bleeding to start,” he told Rádio Renascenca.
“Obviously, we have to discount the intermediation costs. At Porto, we never know they are high or low, but normally they are quite high.
“President Pinto da Costa has been filling his mouth with numbers, saying that Porto has a situation that allows players to be negotiated only through the release clause, and we see that this is not true.”
“I imagine that Sérgio Conceiçao is very angry at this point. He also made public that now Porto is outside UEFA’s remit, they could invest more in the team’s competitiveness; they are starting to see the main players leave. This may have some bearing on his desire to stay or leave the club.”
Standard Sport understands that the deal for Vieira will not affect Arsenal’s pursuit of Youri Tielemans, who wants to leave Leicester in this transfer window as he enters the final 12 months of his contract.
Arsenal have been tracking the Belgian since January and he is eager to complete the switch, despite originally expressing a desire to play in the Champions League next season.
