A year after joining from Nantes, the 27-year-old Brazilian central is being courted by several Premier League clubs
Monchi seems to have done it again.
The reputation of the Spanish sporting director as a master of the transfer market took a hard hit during his time at Roma.
But now back at Sevilla, Monchi seems to have got his mojo back.
Jule Kounde, Fernando, Olivier Torres and Lucas Ocampos all proved to be excellent additions, having joined Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan last year, while Sergio Reguilon experienced a sensational season on loan from Real Madrid.
However, one summer signature is above all others: Diego Carlos.
During his first stint in Andalusia, Monchi earned Sevilla millions of euros with bargain signings such as Dani Alves, Ivan Rakitic, Seydou Keita, Adriano, Julio Baptista and Federico Fazio.
The top four on that list all subsequently went to Barcelona and, during his stellar debut season in La Liga, Carlos was tipped for a transfer to Camp Nou.
However, that doesn’t seem to be happening now. Put simply: Catalans cannot afford it.
A year after joining Sevilla from Nantes for € 15m (£ 14m / $ 17m), Carlos is already worth at least triple that amount.
Indeed, the Rojiblancos insist that the Brazilian defender will not be allowed to leave for anything less than his buy-out clause: € 75m (£ 68m / $ 86m).
Of course, it would be surprising if that figure were reached during the current economic crisis caused by the coronavirus.
However, there is no shortage of clubs willing to try to make a deal with Sevilla for their most valuable asset.
In addition to Barca, Madrid have also been linked to a move for Carlos which makes sense given their interest in finding a long-term successor to captain Sergio Ramos, who is now 34 years old.
The most concrete interest, however, is not to be found in Spain, but in England.
Such as Objective revealed earlier last month, Sevilla have received two offers for Carlos from Premier League clubs. The first offer arrived in June and the second in mid-July.
Carlos certainly looks ideal for English football.
He may have struggled with Adama Traore’s pace in Tuesday’s Europa League quarter-final win against the Wolves, conceding a penalty for tripping the winger in the area, but few defenders can keep up with one of the older players. fast game today.
For the most part, Carlos has been his usual composed and dominant in a defense he and Kounde have turned into one of the best in Spain, if not Europe.
Indeed, this season, only the champions Real Madrid and the perennially mean Atletico Madrid have conceded fewer goals than Sevilla in the La Liga (34).
What’s more, the bottom line was only breached four times during their run to the last four of the Europa League.
Sevilla have not scored a single goal in their last five games in all competitions and are unbeaten in their last 19. Carlos was instrumental in this.
He scored the most clearances and heads in La Liga in 2019-20, while he finished fifth by blocks.
Carlos only made 30 tackles, but that is largely due to the fact that so few forwards can get the better of him. In fact, he was only dribbled 11 times; Ramos, for example, was rounded up 31 times last season.
Carlos is also renowned for his talent on the ball and created 14 chances in all competitions in 2019-20 – double Ramos. However, the current Sevilla star has nothing to do with possession.
Carlos may have a respectable 84.51% passing accuracy, but he falls short of Ramos, Gerard Pique and Clement Lenglet (all above 91%).
The quality contrast becomes even more pronounced in the opposing half. Carlos is always very eager to play raking passes from deep inside, but they often miss the set goal.
In fact, the accuracy of his passes in the opponent’s half is only 68.77%, which is, on average, 20% lower than those of Lenglet, Ramos and Pique.
At 27, then, Carlos is not at the level of the game’s top middle halves. But it would clearly prove an ideal foil for such a defender at one of England’s top clubs. You could definitely see him thriving alongside Virgil van Dijk, for example.
Of course, Liverpool would certainly not be willing to meet Sevilla’s asking price, but Chelsea, on the contrary, have shown a renewed willingness to spend money this summer and are in dire need of a physically dominant midfielder.
Arsenal have far less money to spend but they too need to strengthen their defense and it is not surprising that both London clubs have been closely linked to Carlos in recent weeks.
Of course, the eyebrows would still be raised if Mikel Arteta decides to spend a significant portion of his limited budget on a player who has never been limited at any level by Brazil and has been considered nothing more than a solid midfielder by Ligue 1 followers. during his three years in Nantes between 2016 and 2019.
However, despite his penchant for overly ambitious passes and occasionally out-of-time challenges, Carlos has undeniably been a behemoth behind Sevilla this season.
An impressive performance against Manchester United’s fantastic attack would also go a long way to expel any lingering doubts about his quality.
And to prove that Monchi has really re-appropriated the title of transfer market master.
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