Meet the Colombia midfielder Prem teams are bidding for

Hello friends, before we get into the transfer rumours today, I wanted to point everyone in the direction of the Rebuilding Chelsea series. In case you missed any piece of it, you can find it here:

Part 1: What is this team’s deal, the state of the squad, who to keep, and who to sell.

Part 2: Targets in the transfer market.

Podcast: Pat and Ted have a conversation on these topics, with some disagreement about the best approach.

OK, let’s talk about Colombia and Palmeiras midfielder Richard Rios.

We will start, as we often do, with a sizzle reel. These are never truly representative of a player’s ability, but still a decent way to get an idea of what we’re talking about in 10 minutes or so. I’d call Rios more of a box-to-box midfielder than a true 6, but also more of the ball-winning variety than the attacking type. He can still absolutely rip one from distance.

Rios got on the radar of big European clubs last summer with his performance at Copa America, but didn’t move on from Palmeiras. In that tournament, he was Colombia’s primary ball-winner, and earned plaudits for his excellent defensive output. In a very bad defensive midfielder market, something like this is a welcome sight.

But Rios probably didn’t go anywhere because his output doesn’t look anything like that for Palmeiras. In fact, his statistical profile at club level in Brazil is just not particularly impressive at all. I find it hard to believe that this guy would be on the radar of rich European clubs at all if he was not performing well for Colombia in big international tournaments.

This guy looks like a hard working, but ultimately unremarkable, league average midfielder in the Brasileirao.

Despite that, the folks at GiveMeSport have published two EXCLUSIVES on him in two days, first noting that Nottingham Forest were scouting him, then stating that Manchester United are monitoring him as well. If you’re unfamiliar with GMS, they do have actual reporters and sourcing and do not simply make shit up, but their standards are quite a bit looser than the Ornsteins of the world. This is probably another case of Agent Yapping.

And if I was his agent, I’d be yapping too. Rios is 25 and his stats haven’t progressed significantly in the last year. A team seeing something they like from him at the Club World Cup might be his last chance to make a big move.

I do like Rios’ work rate and athleticism, but if I was advising Forest or United, I’d tell them there isn’t enough evidence that he does anything at Premier League level. Paying a big fee for him would be a mistake.

More news and rumours

• Barcelona’s signing of Espanyol goalkeeper Joan Garcia is official. The race is on to get Marc-Andre ter Stegen’s wages off the books.

• L’Equipe say that Tottenham are negotiating for Rennes striker Arnaud Kalimuendo, who is a bit of a fake news 17 goal scorer. Overperformed his xG by 4 + scored 5 penalties. Stats don’t look great. Shot map doesn’t look great. It’s a no from me dogg.

• If you’re wondering if Arsenal are still negotiating for both Benjamin Šeško and Viktor Gyökeres, yes they are.

• Kyle Walker is looking increasingly likely to sign a 1-year deal at Everton.

• Inter Milan are interested in Rasmus Hojlund if they can’t beat Napoli to the signature of Ange-Yoann Bonny, so prayers up for Man United.

• And if Man United can yeet Hojlund to Italy, they’ll be interested in Hugo Ekitike. Everyone should be interested in Ekitike.

• Apparently Porto think it’s possible for them to sign Tyler Dribbling. I cannot imagine they’ll bid more than English clubs, but good luck?

• AC Milan and Napoli are both interested in Darwin Núñez, though I can’t imagine they’re interested in paying the £50m asking price. This is where Liverpool should start negotiations, but I imagine they’ll need to settle for either £10m less than that or a loan-to-buy.

• Napoli also like Jadon Sancho, but again, not at the price they’re being quoted.

• Leeds are about to secure their first big signing ahead of the Premier League season in center back Jaka Bijol from Udinese. He’s a big boy who wins headers.

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