Miguel Veloso: Villa Join 4-Way Chase for £13M Sporting Star with Arsenal, Spurs & Man City
Miguel Veloso is set to leave Sporting Lisbon this summer despite recent comments made by the midfielder. At least four Premier League clubs are reported to be chasing the £13m man. The versatile star was limited to just 21 League appearances last season (15 starts) and is finally set to leave his homeland after being continually linked with moves abroad in recent seasons.
The player himself told the Portuguese press, “I want to play and be a champion for Sporting.”However, he left the door open to a move to the Premier League when he said, “I am fine where I am, but I have the dream to play abroad and that is normal in every young player.”
Bolton made a move to sign the Portuguese star back in January which was confirmed by the midfielder’s agent Paulo Barbosa. When asked if Bolton were likely to sign the player, he told Setanta.com, “No, no it is not true. Bolton, no.”
“It is true they were interested in January but Sporting refused an offer for €12 million.
When asked about Arsenal and Man City’s continued interest, Barbosa interestingly revealed, “We will see, we will see soon.”
Barbosa had confirmed that the Premier League was his most likely destination when he revealed, “England is his first choice, and he already speaks good English. Everything is possible at the moment.”
Man City and both North London rivals Tottenham and Arsenal had been strongly linked to the defender come defensive midfielder although Aston Villa’s interest is new but makes perfect sense now Gareth Barry has left the club and Martin Laursen has retired as Veloso is adept at both of those player’s roles.
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Veloso had a public fallout with his Sporting Lisbon coach Paulo Bento last season after being made to play left-back against his wishes. However, the player and coach are reported to have settled their difference but still the midfielder is likely to be sold. Bento told SIC Noticias, “Miguel Veloso is a player who is under contract until 2013 and, like everyone else, he could be sold or he could stay.”
“If he stays, he will be treated as he always has been, playing in the position that best serves the team.”
The player’s father Antonio has admitted that the player does want to leave the club. He had this to say concerning his son, “We will speak with the club to resolve everything about his future so that he doesn’t leave the club on bad terms.”
Man City manager Mark Hughes has is known to be a keen admirer of Veloso but after signing Gareth Barry this summer plus Vincent Kompany and Nigel De Jong last season, it remains to be seen where he would feature.
The defensive midfielder can also play at centre-half and has been linked in the past with the likes of Manchester United, Juventus and AC Milan. With the player’s versatility it is no wonder there are a number of English clubs looking to sign the long-haired 23-year-old. This interest is all despite only playing 72 league games (62 starts) for his club though the Portuguese star has impressed in European competition for Sporting.
Veloso is a full international (7 caps) and impressed in the European U21 Championships held in Holland. He was also part of his Portugal’s Euro 2008 squad but only featured in the 2-0 group defeat to the co-hosts Switzerland. He has fallen some way down the pecking order so a move to the Premier League may reignite his international career.
Sporting are likely to want to cash in on one of their most valuable assets especially after Veloso’s problems with his coach and his lack of playing time. Whether his next destination is Eastlands, Villa Park, the Emirates or White Hart Lane is up for debate. His strength, versatility and talented left-foot have led to a queue of potential suitors attempting to attract him to the English top division as well as clubs from Serie A.
His price tag has been quoted at around £12m-13m which has dropped from around the £18m mark during Euro 2008. The current price tag is unlikely to put off the Premier League clubs for long whilst the young Portuguese star is reportedly keen to make the transition. He would give balance to Spurs, Aston Villa’s or Arsenal’s midfield and add even more quality to Man City’s. His signing would give the likes of Hughes, O’Neill’s, Redknapp’s or Wenger’s’ sides the licence to use their attacking strengths with the safety net of Veloso operating behind them.
So would you like your club to sign the Portuguese star in January or is he vastly overrated in your eyes?
Tags: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bolton, Man City, Miguel Veloso, Portugal, Sporting Lisbon, Tottenham
July 2nd, 2009 at 15:27
if only he had the dress sense of defoe on his return to the lane huh?
July 2nd, 2009 at 16:07
Ask yourself a simple question…what will he win if he goes to the spuds?
NOTHING!
Whereas at Arsenal, he gets to play in the Emirates Stadium (Best club stadium in England by a mile) and play in the Champions Leagues as well.
He will also play with World class players, e.g. Fabregas, Van Persie, Arshavin etc
What would any player choose who wants a career in football?
July 2nd, 2009 at 16:32
Hahaha whats he going to win at Arsenal. Nothing, so your point is what? in 4 years spurs are going to have a better stadium than that dogbowl graveyard you call a stadium bruv. Arshavin will go as soon as barca come callin and same will go fabregash. keep dreaming son, if any of your ickle bickle players injure themselves while diving again your in trouble son.
July 2nd, 2009 at 16:33
And he’ll win loads at Ar5ena1!!
Oh and don’t be surprised if at least one, maybe two of the WORLD class names you mentioned, ain’t there come 01 September.
Even Arse Shavin seems to be heckling for Barcelona to move for him, maybe he’s too old for the peado and spurned his advances!!!
July 2nd, 2009 at 16:57
look face the facts teams would much rather play for arsenal then tottenham as we consistly play in the champions league have a better manager, a better stadium, higher profile players and a bigger worldwide fan base. whearas tottenham spend a lot of money but fail to progress on a mid table finish. U are a club that never progresses and noone wants to play for a team like that
July 2nd, 2009 at 17:03
all the people who say fabregas and arshavin are going it’s all rubbish from the media, they print rubbish cause they know spuds will wanna read it, what has your team won they can’t even get into champion league football
July 2nd, 2009 at 17:13
can wait to have this lad in our squad..
July 2nd, 2009 at 17:27
Veloso will not be going abroad 4 a club dat is not playin in d CL
July 2nd, 2009 at 18:09
Do Arsenal even have enough money? £13million for another creative midfielder, I hope they DO buy him.
As for CL the smart money would be on city muscling you out of a place ….so ask yourself where is the attraction after that?
July 2nd, 2009 at 18:18
He will be a regular starter for Villa, his international career will be resurrected, he will become a Villa legend for helping us into CL next year. In short; forget all about him Londoners, he’s ours.
July 2nd, 2009 at 21:44
Crikey - so much anger… let me try and calm things down a tad with a well though out question that won’t offend anyone…
Tottenham - mid-table jokers? Discuss.
July 3rd, 2009 at 13:03
Jokers indeed. I have to be honest. Always gives me a chuckle to hear spurs fans going on about the ‘rivalry’ with the arsenal. My point is, what rivalry? So basically, you’ve never (!) even been in the champs league, you’ve never won a premier league, you win even less (?!) than us. the last remnants of a so called rivalry you have is when many of you accused arsene wenger of poisoning your team a few years back when you didn’t finish 4th over us. talk about throwing your toys out of the pram. so no spuds, in fact there is no rivalry. in short, you are not near arsenal, nor any of the top four so you can’t claim a rivalry.
as for the so called stadia your building lol..that’s a joke in itself. if you haven’t read about the fantastic project you have there, you couldn’t even plan for the place correctly, instead having to withdraw a large number of seats and reduce your capacity…not a question of not being able to afford it, what are a few thousand seats when your taking out such massive loans, 10k-20k would hardly be the reason. oh, not to mention it looks just like the emirates, your hiring the same guys (lol). It just comes down to the fact your the perennial underachievers in london trying straight up to copy what we have achieved, if you know your football think back to the ‘new european model’ you were adopting and trying to imitate what was happening at highbury in the days of the Jol (best manager you’ve had..which you fired..genius lol). so if you stop and think, there is not much of an argument against arsenal fans.
moral of the story, you can never count on spurs for anything. Even fulham and west ham are achieving more than you, and I havent even got to chelski.
Alas, grand illusions, grand ideas, but not an iota of sense. at least you guys are consistent..i’ll give you that. keep up the good work..lol. wat a joke. rivalry with spurs, nah..it’s just reptition of legend, old folk songs, when spurs won things and this ‘rivalry’ was more than just 2 teams from north london. So all we’re left with is media hype. a rival for arsenal is utd, liverpool, chelsea, villa (v impressd), barca, real, milan, juventus even villareal..not spurs (ps all of those teams we have recorded famous wins over when it has counted in the last 10 years alone be it champs league quarter finals, semi finals, league championships.. you name it. we have done it. we even went invincible i can assure you).
So Arsenal fans, is there actually a rivalry with spurs? discuss.
July 3rd, 2009 at 14:41
Riko ended the discussion. There is no possible response!
July 6th, 2009 at 15:59
lol yo..haha gooner (july 2nd). haha indeed. did you hear? zokora wants to leave…