The main argument was all the failures from the PT league that go abroad. Most of them fail. The Benfica players are the most hyped because the press is for them. You have to live in PT to understand. Therefore i always have a lot of doubts when a big club signs a PT league player for a load of money. Of any club. Porto players have also failed but they have less mindless hype.
Sanches, Gaitan, Lindelof, Garay, Mangala, Jackson Martinez, Fernando, Javi Garcia and many others have failed. Some have prevailed like AlexSandro, James, Falcao.
I had to register just to reply to this nonsense. I lived in Portugal for a long time and I don't get what exactly are you saying. I certainly don't like your very selective memory when pointing the players that suceeded in other leagues. But I will help you.
1 - Jan Oblak - Atletico Madrid sign him from Benfica and won the league with him, already one of the top GK in the world.
2 - David Luiz - From Benfica to Chelsea, he was crucial for them, won the Champions League, went to PSG and came back to Chelsea to win the league.
3 - Ramires - Similar to David Luiz, went to Chelsea where he was a key player for several years.
4 - Nemanja Matic - Again from Benfica to Chelsea, one of the top defensive midfielders in the world, won 2 leagues in the Premier already.
5 - Di Maria - Signed from Real Madrid, one of the best wingers in the world and a key player for them before being transfered to Man Utd.
6 - Bernardo Silva - Became one of the top players of the Ligue 1 and won the league with Monaco. Guardiola made very clear that he wanted him at Man City.
7 - Andre Gomes - Did well at Valencia and won him the move to Barcelona. I know he is not doing great but this has hardly anything to do with the portuguese league or Benfica, because he proved himself in Spain.
So here you have 7 players that were transfered from Benfica to other leagues and proved to be great players. Still to be proven good or bad we have Semedo (who is on the right track to success), Ederson (also doing well) and Lindelof (not doing great and will probably flop) .
How many big transfers failed? Coentrao (30M), Enzo Perez (30M), Rodrigo (30M), Javi Garcia (22M), Gaitan (30M), Guedes (30M), Markovic (25M) and so far also Renato Sanches (35M).
It seems we have a 50% success ratio. I would argue that some of the players that fail in other leagues are because of themselves or because it was just a bad move for their careers. For example Gaitan is not Simeone material, he is not agressive and although he has great ability, he wouldn't fit in any team. He would probably have more success in Barcelona than Atletico. Rodrigo went to Valencia and manager decided that we was going to be a winger. He did a great season at Benfica as a striker, not winger, also he is a type of player that needs to be looked after, psycologically he is not very strong. Guedes and Markovic left way too early.
Renato left Benfica with 18 years old to one of the most stable and strong teams in the world. He floped, but he is now 19 years old, not 30. He only played 6 months in Benfica first team before the Euro and then the transfer. The hype was justified, he was crucial in winning the league and the Euro, was named golden boy and this is one classic example of all the big teams in Europe wanting to be the first ones to bite the bullet. It happenned with Sanches, could be with any other kid in France, Italy, etc.
What you did is not fair. I could pick a few players that Benfica signed from Spain like Jimenez for 22M (never managed to secure a place in the first team) or Roberto (8.5M) one of the worst GK in our history althoug on the season before he was named for the team of the season in La Liga, and use these players to argue that all the players that come from Spain are rubish and will be terribe. But it is not true, all leagues have good and bad players, it's just a matter of being honest.
As for Semedo and because the topic is about him, I trully believe he will be one of the best right backs in the world and he will prove himself until the end of the season. I actually think he can be the best right back in the world for years to come, not only because he is great, but also because there arent' that many great right backs at the moment, not like Dani Alves, Lahm, Zanetti or Cafu. It is still to be seen how important Semedo can be with confidence, his dribling ability is fenomenal.
