Ruben Dias sale illustrates how fragile Benfica's season really was as the club feel the full effect of their Champions League disaster
The repercussions of Benfica's damaging Champions League defeat are finally being felt as Ruben Dias is allowed to swap Lisbon for Manchester for a fee in the region of 70 million euros.
One defeat. Just one damaging defeat has triggered the sale of Benfica's most lucrative asset for a fee that falls well short of his 100 million euro release clause. This was not supposed to happen.
As Benfica built a squad with the vision of making a run in European competition in addition to snatching the Primeira Liga title back from arch-rivals Porto, Ruben Dias was very much expected to be at the heart of it all, the experienced Jan Vertonghen’s partner in the centre of defence. He was considered unsellable, only available should a club reach an offer matching his release clause.
But just a single surprise loss to Greek outfit PAOK in the Champions League third qualifying round dismantled Benfica’s plans and sent them spiralling into something of a mini-crisis. Player sales became inevitable, a necessity, and just like that, the man that was seen as a potential future captain of Benfica was shuffled out the door.
It illustrates just how fragile Benfica's entire strategy this season really was, how their entire aspirations hinged on qualification to the UEFA Champions League, how funding their numerous high-profile signings was something of an afterthought.
Qualification to the Champions League group stage would have earned Benfica, as an absolute minimum, a massive 37 million euro windall. In the Europa League, however, the asbolute maximum Benfica can get is just short of 20 million euros - and that’s assuming they win every single game en route to winning Europe’s secondary competition.
Was there an air of arrogance at the club? Did Benfica believe in their own hype, that they were too good to fail, that a side like PAOK simply would not beat them and they simply deserved to be playing in Europe’s most illustrious club competition? Whatever the reason, Benfica are feeling the consequences of their Champions League disaster, and it illustrates just how damaging that night in Greece really was.
