In perhaps the craziest Summer ever on the European transfer market, with Real Madrid buying everybody but Barack Obama, Manchester City front-loading a squad in a manner that recalls nothing so much as Ossie Ardiles' Tottenham Hotspur team; and just about everybody else (even the usually mighty likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Juventus and AC Milan) wondering what exactly the suddenly tiny sum of £20 Million buys you nowadays, one club seems to me to have done great business in the transfer market. That club would be FC Porto.
How can that be? you say. Haven't they just sold their most influential player, their heartbeat, playmaker, captain and midfield general, Luis "Lucho" Gonzalez? Why, yes they have, to Marseille for €18 Million. And, and - haven't they also sold their buccaneering, ultra-prolific centre forward, Lisandro Lopez? Why, yes. To Lyon, for €24 Million. How then, you ask, can this be mistaken for 'great' business?
Well. This is the Porto model. They identify South American talent, (and not in the way Barcelona or Man Utd do, recruiting youth team players before they make their full debuts), they monitor its development, then they buy it. Not too cheaply, either, but never at an exorbitant price. They seem to have a great knack of picking players who will make the grade in Europe, where a lot of clubs recruit unknown quantities who don't have what it takes and go home after a Season or two, having discovered their actual level. Or perhaps they just handle those players well, shepherding them through a difficult cultural change and allowing them to find their form and way without rushing anything.
Then they make that talent work for them. Since the Mourinho era, Porto have won the League in six out of seven Seasons (the single unsuccessful year was the immediate post-Mourinho wobble) and established an iron-fisted dominance over the two big Lisbon clubs. They also regularly make the latter stages of the Champions League.
Then they sell these players, generally at a significant profit. And back they go to South america, to buy the next player...
Examples: Deco, who was playing for tiny Salgueiros in Portugal when Porto bought him, the unknown Brazilian had been brought to Portugal by Benfica but never given a start, instead being farmed out on loan. Porto bought him for a pittance, Mourinho made him the focal point of the team and he was one of the best players in the World for a few seasons after that; able to pass long and short, tackle, dribble and with a great tactical brain. They won the Portuguese League, the UEFA cup, then the Champions League, and then sold him to Barcelona for €12 Million and Ricardo Quaresma.
Quaresma himself - a dazzling talent for Sporting Lisbon, he had flopped horribly after a big-money (€6 Million) transfer to Barcelona. Porto rehabilitated him and he would be a key member of the squad that won two consecutive League titles before being sold to Internazionale for €18 Million.
Porto replaced Quaresma with Cristian Rodriguez, the young Uruguayan who had done well in a struggling Paris Saint Germain before being loaned to Benfica, where he thrived. Porto nipped him from under Benfica's noses, paying €7 Million for him, giving him the Number 10 shirt and playing him as a roaming left winger in a potent three-man attack.
One of the other members of that attack, Hulk, had been a revelation this season. Bought from Tokyo Verdy in Japan and accordingly absolutely off the radar for most of Europe's clubs, the young Brazilian cost only €6 Million and scored eight goals in his debut Season in Portugal.
Of course there have been players who didn't do quite so well. But Porto generally made a profit on them, too. Diego is a rare exception, joining for €7 Million from Santos and leaving for Werder Bremen, his reputation damaged by two seasons of underachievement, for €6 Million. Anderson is more representative - bought from Gremio for around €10 Million, a horrific broken leg (the result of a tackle) meant he played little for Porto, but Manchester United paid €18 Million for him anyway. As is Carlos Alberto, who played little but scored the crucial first goal in the Champions League final and was sold to Werder Bremen for €7.8 Million.
Bringing me back to this summer, Lucho and Lopez. Porto obviously have been eyeing their replacements for some time. Lucho has been linked with various Spanish clubs for the last two summers (Valencia and Atletico Madrid, most prominently) and within a week of his transfer, Porto had begun negotiations to bring Fernando Belluschi in to replace him. Belluschi is another former River Plate creative midfielder, perhaps more imaginitive than Lucho, if less commanding, and after a solid (and occasionally inspired) first Season with Olympiakos he may be ready for a bigger League. This is business - Porto paid €11 Million for Lucho, sold him for €18 Million, and have bought Belluschi for €5 Million. They are also persistently linked with Lanus' Diego Valeri, an oustanding young playmaker, and their history with recruits from Argentina suggests he too could be a success.
As for Lisandro Lopez, he was bought from Racing Club in Argentina for €2.5 Million, giving Porto a €20 Million profit on his sale to Lyon. In his time at the club he doubled his goals-per-game tally and was a lethal spearpoint to their attack. They have acted quickly to replace him, paying River Plate €3.9 Million for the 23 year-old Columbian striker Falcao, a hot property over the last few Seasons, and as good a striker as there is in South America at the moment.
Man City, prepared to pay €40 Million for Emmanuel Adebayor, and Real Madrid, with the same fee for Xabi Alonso, could do worse than take a few notes. Though they would probably rather wait a Season or two, then offer €50 Million for Falcao...
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