Yeah, it´s official, 20M for Rojo, 10M now, 5M on the 1st of december and 5M on the 1st of July.
Sporting also receives Nani on loan for the season free of charges!
http://web3.cmvm.pt/sdi2004/emitentes/docs/FR51803.pdf
That´s an insane bid for a player like Rojo and and amazing deal for Sporting who sees an ok player that already wanted to leave out with player coming in that will easily be one on their top 3 players.
Again it's time to ask Azul about players.
How good is Rojo?
Also is he better than Mangala?
Abour Rojo I wrote this recently:
I agree with ADRossis friend, even though he was too hard on the guy, he was a valid player for Sporting last season.
He´s a below average LB, who did a good WC, and an average CB (Not good on the air, not particularly strong nor fast, has a good positioning, pass and can score some goals on the attack but that´s about it), I never understood what the big deal around him was.
If the 20M offer by United is indeed true it would just be a ridiculous amount of money for a player like him, Sporting fans were happy about the 15M bid that apparently Southampton did, 20M would be gold.
That being said and after considering the a 3 man defense that may suit him very well if he gets to play with other defenders that are better on the air and on the physical contact, as to mask some of his weaknesses. A CB from the left side that is confident with the ball and can be the first constructor of the game after the team regains the ball on the defense.
But no I don´t think he´s better than Mangala, despite how disappointing he was last season (alongside with pretty much every player on the team) I still believe that if he keeps his concentration high, improves his game with the ball and his positioning (he compensates this several times with his speed) he can become a great CB and a pretty dominant force on the defense, when on his days the guy is up there with the best CBs we´ve ever had, incredibly strong, very fast and almost unbeatable on the air both on the defense and on the attack, last season he looked like a rookie who was clueless most of the games, I´m rooting for him though because he also seems like a humble hard working guy.
Can you also tell me about Siqueira? He was a beast in EL, but i havent really watched him much in the league to say. Is he good Filipe replacement?
I´m not the biggest fan of the guy tbh.
My biggest problem with him starts with a major problem, he´s very injury prone, until the end of 2013 he only got the equivalent game time of 7,5 full games! The guy was always injured! To me that was one of the reasons why he was in such a terrific last third of the season, when typically all the players start to feel really tired, it was by then that he reached his top form.
If you watched some games from Alex Sandro it´s easy to compare the 2 , Siqueira is an Alex Sandro who defends worse.
He´s one of those full backs that appears a lot on the highlights of the game because he´s very fast, can run the whole game and has great technique that makes a difference on the attack, for the portuguese league that´s more than enough, specially for a team like Benfica and Porto where the full backs attack a lot, the problem like I said comes on the defensive part of the game.
He tends to compensate his lack of defensive capacity to the heart he puts on every move he makes, but that also makes him come for the ball too soon when sometimes he should hold the tackle and just occupy the position, for me that´s the biggest problem I have with him, that leads him to get booked quite easily.
Also he´s kind of clueless when it comes to defend inside the box close to the CBs, he clearly isn´t comfortable when he has to occupy that spot (I´m thinks of crosses from the right side on those ball that appear on the second post on that gap between the 2nd CB and the LB). Both him and Alex Sandro are terrible on those.
All things considered, and for a 28 year old defender on a big club right now, and on a much stronger league (but that he knows already for playing there before) I believe he´ll need to show much more capacity on the defense that what he showed here.