Benfica are being linked with a summer move for Teemu Pukki according to Portuguese Sports paper, A Bola.
The Portuguese giants are seemingly looking for a new striker this summer and A Bola suggest that he would fit in perfectly as to the type of striker that manager, Bruno Laga is on the lookout for.
This report also suggests that the Portuguese champions are willing to pay €15m for the right player, although Pukki is one of a number of players being looked at.
I’m sure that in the current market, the Canaries would value their star striker at a lot more than that but the bad news is that Benfica’s 19-year-old winger, Joao Felix is likely to be sold this summer with a €105m release clause not putting off clubs such as Manchester City and Manchester United.
A sale of that size is likely to swell the Benfica coffers considerably, meaning that they could potentially bid high enough to tempt Norwich or at least for the board to consider it.
Do I think that City would sell Pukki?
I’d be very surprised and equally disappointed. The goal of the club is to establish themselves as a stable Premier League club and to leave that “yo-yo” tag behind.
In order to do that, they will need to score goals and in Pukki, the recruitment team unearthed an astonishing goal scorer and paid nothing for him too.
He will be the focal point of the team next season, just like he was last season and although Benfica could offer Champions League football, Pukki has said, more than once, that the challenge of the Premier League excites him.
The Premier League is the biggest and best football product out there and I’m reasonably comfortable that City could withstand all but the most outrageous bid for Pukki. Again though, it shows how important promotion was in terms of keeping this group of players together.
The only surprise for me is that it’s taken until this point for there to be speculation of this type about him.
OTBC