Despite interest from Premier League heavyweights Liverpool and Arsenal, Brazilian duo Lucas Beraldo and Pablo Maia are not “pressuring” Sao Paulo to let them go.
The director of football at Sao Paulo, Rui Costa, says as much.
The Tricolor chief is aware that “the moment will come” for Lucas Beraldo and Pablo Maia to say goodbye; Arsenal and Liverpool are rumored to be interested in the highly-regarded duo.
The Premier League’s biggest clubs, however, will not be able to get two of South America’s brightest prospects for peanuts because they have only recently inked new, long-term deals.
“These boys possess exceptional intelligence and are aware that the time to depart will arrive.”Through CNN, Rui Costa tells Globo Esporte, “We will always talk to the agent and the player.”
“We ultimately decided to extend Beraldo’s contract. We recently extended our contract with Pablo and (Rodrigo) Nestor. At the very least, their contracts are valid until 2027 for all of them. If the offer benefits everyone, we will negotiate with each of them.
However, these boys have never put any pressure on me. On the contrary.
Beraldo is a left-sided center-half with a £20 million rating that is of interest to Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle, Chelsea, and Tottenham Hotspur (Daily Mirror, November 26, page 70).
Maia, who tackles with toughness, is valued at approximately £13 million, which is slightly less. With growing concerns about Thomas Partey’s future, Arsenal is now in the running alongside West Ham, Fulham, and Nottingham Forest (TEAMtalk).
Tottenham and Newcastle are keeping a close eye on
Sao Paulo was compelled to allow Gabriel Sara to join Norwich City in 2022 for a significantly lower price than they were willing to pay. But according to Rui Costa, the days of letting top players leave for less than their market value are long gone.
“We only sell players for the price we think is fair,” the director says, explaining what has changed. We frequently had to sell for less than what we believed to be a fair and appropriate price.
Gabriel Sara departed for England in search of lucrative opportunities. Nine million pounds. Sara would be worth much more, though, as we knew.
“Although we will evaluate each case individually, we can better insure the player and obtain better value this year than we could last.”