Ah, it was too good to be true that we could get 2,5 - 5 mil for him.
Well either way it must suck to go from having Semedo to Douglas just like that. Douglas tbh could do a okay job in Portugal for Benfica, but only as a 2nd-3rd option from the bench.
During the whole Semedo saga, I decided to learn a bit more about Benfica's squad and options in their B team. Ederson,Semedo and Lindelof were Massive key players for them and they lost all three and they have no players right now that can't remotely fill the holes they left.
Ederson's replacement could be Bruno Varela, but going by the preseason games he's awful. Lindelof's replacements I have no clue really, Luisão who's been a starter over there for nearly 14 years over there but the dude is like 36 years old. I would guess Branimir Kalaica and Jardel could fill that gap.
Semedo's replacement is tricky as none of the current options they have could remotely fill that gap Semedo left. André Almeida is Benfica's Roberto, can play in the Midfield and also at Fullback but like Roberto simply doesn't have the attacking presence Semedo had.
Pedro Pereira, originally came through Benfica's academy but later left to Sampdoria where from what I've read did a solid job so he was brought back in January this year for around 6 million euros. my theory is they originally knew Semedo would leave this summer so they thought maybe Pedro could be his replacement.
But going by what I've seen in preseason, not bloody likely at all. sure he's 19 years old but he really lacks the attacking talent to fill that role. my theory is he's done well in Sampdoria because they didn't need to rely so much on him going forward but at Benfica it's different. Semedo heavily utilized as an attacking outlet at Benfica and they probably expected Pedro to replicate it but so far it doesn't seem like it.
I guess this is where Douglas fits in. But the problem with Douglas is his defensive game is so weak, it's true going forward is his specialty but we aren't exactly talking Alves levels that warrants a trade off. I reckon Benfica will be playing Musical chairs this season in that RB spot.
