Valencia and Liverpool, both in the market for a right-sided midfield player, will be monitoring the situation at Benfica very closely as the club admitted that Simao had been left out of the squad because “he had not acted according to the club’s directives” and that a decision will be made very soon.

The kicker here is that Simao has been talking about a move away from Benfica for a long time now - before the World Cup in June Benfica were adamant on keeping the winger but near the end of June there were rumours that Benfica would be willing to let him go.

Valencia are keen on buying a right-sided player as evidenced by their past pursuit of Simao and their recent transfer fee inquiry for Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United. It’s expected that United will be unwilling to put a price tag on Ronaldo, although if push came to shove the player would not be priced at anything less than 20 mil.

Liverpool have been rumoured to be interested in the player as well, with recent discussions on this site confirming that the club is on the lookout for a right-sided midfielder.

How much would Simao cost? Possibly the same as Duff, or a little bit more than that. It’s all speculation at this point - we’ll know more in a few days.