Player Profile: Renato Veiga

Lets have a brief look at our newest recruit.......

Good Evening Ladies and Gents,

Firstly, I am writing this article with a lot of happiness but also a tint of regret, last week when I wrote my LCB/LB hybrid article I reviewed 6/7 players and selected just 4 to mention, 2 of the 7 I didn’t include after doing lots of research were Renato Veiga & Ferdi Kadoglu, we have since agreed a deal for Veiga and Kadioglu has been superd for Turkey in the Euros and is in line for a big move this summer.

The Veiga deal is everything I want Chelsea to be about, rather than going to spend 50m on a player they are signing 11m on a lesser known player who actually replaced the more expensive option, Bologna signed Riccardo Calafiori from FC Basel who then signed Renato Veiga to replace him,

Renato Veiga

Player profile;

Age: 20

Nationality: Portugese

Position: Left Centre Back, Left Back & Holding Midfielder

Height: 6ft 3in

Summary;

I wont lie and say I have watched him lots, but I did profile him in depth last week and was incredibly impressed with my findings, so much so that I genuinely think this will be another Gusto-esque signing.

Renato Veiga is a left footed versatile defensive player who is extremely athletic, physical and powerful. He came up through the ranks at Sporting Lisbon and is a Portugese youth international. In January 2023 He went on loan to FC Augsburg in the Bundesliga where he played 15 times in the 4 months he was there. In the summer of 2023 FC Basel bought him from Sporting CP to replace Riccardo Calafiori.

He is incredibly comfortable on the ball, has a brilliant passing range, very aggressive in both aspects of the game. He is very quick and even with his height he manages to accelerate very quickly. He has a sense of aggressive shithousery when defending which is something we have missed since Rudiger left.

Style of play;

His passing range is exceptional, he can switch the play with ease, his long balls are excellent and he is composed and clever over shorter distances. He likes to defend on the front foot and pushes his opponents to the edge physically in order to win the ball back.

Although versatile he definitely suits being a defender more than a midfielder for me, he isn’t completely comfortable receiving on the back foot or in tight midfield spaces whereas at the back he seems to get his first touch spot on to open up the play and can be very progressive with his passes and loves to break lines.

He clearly is far from the finished article but he has improved a hell of a lot from his Augsburg days to now leaving Basel, in around a year he has improved tenfold, he can immediately impact our first team, that I am sure of.

He is completely comfortable inverting into midfield from full back or as a left sided centre back in a back 3 which are both absolutely perfect attributes to have for Enzo Maresca’s system.

A couple of clips below that are worth watching;

Verdict;

He is FAR from the finished article but he is also EXTREMELY promising and has the ability's to impact our first team instantly, I genuinely think in 6 months time he will be nailed in in the lineup let alone the squad.

The fee is excellent at just 11m, the scouting, data and detail input to this signing is phenomenal and the low key signings like this always make me more excited!

I am really looking forward to see how he adapts to life at the bridge.

If you couldn’t guess I am VERY excited about this one.

Thanks for reading.

Luke Rushbrook