Agent Mendes looking to move Gonçalo Guedes for €70m; Chelsea linked — report

Local Valencia outlet ‘Plaza Valencia’ is the chosen medium through which superagent Jorge Mendes has decided to start conducting his latest business masterpiece, getting someone to pay €70m for Valencia CF rising star Gonçalo Guedes.

That’s not to say that the 22-year-old winger, fresh off of scoring Portugal’s Nations League-winning goal, is or isn’t worth that amount, but having already engineered moves of €30m (Benfica to PSG, winter 2017) and €40m (PSG to Valencia, summer 2018) for the kid from Benfica, Mendes is seemingly ready to collect again.

The report, published on Sunday and slowly making its way across Europe, claims that Chelsea, “after consulting with Mendes” have identified Guedes as a “most interesting option” to replace Eden Hazard in the long-term, and are willing to pay the fee needed despite the transfer ban. We’re said to be even willing to consider the idea of paying now and collecting in twelve months, after the transfer ban (i.e. registration ban) has passed.

How incredibly generous of us! (Even if in some way, that notion makes sense. The Eden Hazard money is not doing anyone any good just sitting in the bank after all.)

That’s why Mendes is a superagent.

Guedes has of course been linked with most other big teams around Europe over the past couple months. Mendes set the stage in April already, as per the report, telling Valencia (where he retains great influence through the ownership group) that he’s fielding offers from the Premier League.

Guedes is a right-footed, fairly tall winger, who prefers to play on the left side. He finished the season in good form after battling a couple injuries early on, collecting a career-best 8 goals and 4 assists in all competitions in less than 2500 minutes. His contract with Valencia has five more years to run and has a release clause of €300m.

Here’s a requisite YouTube highlights video.