After the sale today of Ruben Dias to Manchester City for €68M plus incentives of an additional €3.6M, the Lisbon side will look to cash in on a few more players from the squad before the summer transfer window closes on October 5. Benfica is looking to balance their books after losing the windfall of making the Champions League group stage when they had already spent €80M+ on arrivals to the club due to the return of former club manager Jorge Jesus.
Benfica will now continue to shop players that Jesus feels is not needed at the club this season, these players include last seasons top scoring striker Carlos Vinicius, midfielder Franco Cervi and a couple of players that spent the season on loan in Facundo Ferreyra, Christian Lema and Alfa Semedo. Benfica are looking to land €45M plus for the services of Vinicius with Tottenham, Leicester City and Crystal Palace all interested in the player but not at that price.
Benfica are set to sell Ruben Dias this week to Manchester City, Dias is also the lone Seixal academy product in the starting eleven of the club and his departure could be the end of Seixal made players getting regular minutes under current manager Jorge Jesus. The veteran manager is known to lean heavily towards veteran players when at the helm and has made it clear what players he will be leaning on during the 2020/21 campaign. These players do not include academy players Florentino Luis (joined Monaco on loan), Ivan Zlobin (sold to Famalicao), Tomas Tavares (to join Alaves on loan), Jota and Ferro who find themselves looking at other clubs to find regular minutes.
Moroccan midfielder Abel Taarabt will not play this weekend against Moreirense due to a groin injury suffered during last weeks opener against Famalicao which kept him out of training all week. Jorge Jesus is looking at Pizzi or Chiquinho as replacements for Taarabt in the midfield role. The Benfica manager states he is calm and confident with either player in that position with both players training during the week to fill the void.
