Renato Veiga has reached his “peak” for his old team; could repeat it

We love a transfer out of the blue. It’s something that happens far too rarely these days, when every detail of every club’s interest in every player trickles down. It’s like opening the wrapping of your Christmas present piece by piece starting on December 1st – once you reach the 25th, there’s no surprise left to enjoy.

So Chelsea’s transfer of Renato Veiga was a real treat. Out of the blue, Fabrizio Romano announced last night that the deal was as good as done. That meant the fun of finding out all about him came in a big rush – and Robin Bairner’s article on him for FootballTransfers is a good place to start.

A versatile player – so where does he fit?

An important starting point is – what position does he play? He is a defender and midfielder and is left-footed, which gives him a lot of room to play. Romano said in his tweet on the subject that Veiga could play left-back, centre-back or number 6 at Chelsea, while Bairner’s article indicates that he has also been used as a left-back.

He describes him as an “alternative to Riccardo Calafiori”, who is moving to Arsenal. In fact, Veiga was bought by Basel as a replacement for Calafiori when the Italian moved to Bologna.

“Veiga was used as a central midfielder or centre-back in Switzerland. During his time at Augsburg, when he was at his peak, he was used as a left-back and had a lot of success there… that’s how Chelsea plan to use him,” Bairner explained.

More stories about Renato Veiga

So it’s not entirely clear, but it seems like we have signed a player for our dream team and this move undoubtedly puts the future of Ben Chilwell and Marc Cucurella in question.