£16m Florentino Deal Close
Sunday, 2nd Aug 2026 20:05

Town and Burnley are close to agreeing a £16 million fee for midfielder Florentino Luis.

 As reported earlier, the Blues’ late move for the 26-year-old looked set for success after a loan switch to Hull City, which earlier in the week appeared certain to go through, broke down and links with Fulham were dismissed. 

According to Sky Sports, a £16 million deal is close to being confirmed, while it’s understood Florentino is in Suffolk ready to complete the formalities relating to the switch.

Angola-born Florentino joined Burnley on loan from Benfica, where he came through the youth system, last summer with the move made permanent for a fee of £20.6 million at the end of last season due to an obligation in the deal.

Six-foot tall Florentino made 25 starts and six sub appearances for the Lancastrians in the Premier League last season.

During his time with Benfica, he won two Primeira Liga titles, featured in the Champions League and won Portuguese caps at U15 to U21 levels. He also spent time on loan at Monaco and Getafe.

The Blues are currently very short on central midfielders, particularly with Azor Matusiwa and Jack Taylor, who is a target of Birmingham City and other Championship clubs, unlikely to be involved in any pre-season games following their operations in May.

Youngsters Fin Barbrook and Charlie Compton have started friendlies, while Chieo Ogbene and Sindre Walle Egeli have been utilised out of position to cover.

Florentino is one of two moves which the Blues are currently progressing with former loanee Julio Enciso understood to be keen on a return to Portman Road and a reunion with Gary O’Neil, who was his manager at Strasbourg in the second half of last season.

Discussions regarding what’s believed to be a permanent switch are ongoing.

Elsewhere, Bayer Leverkusen sporting managing director Simon Rolfes has commented on the reported interest in Argentina international midfielder Exequiel Palacios from Town and RB Leipzig.

“There are always rumours about certain players,” he said. “Palacios is one of the players for whom this has happened from time to time in recent years.”

Photo: Imago Images Sports

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Bazza8564 added 20:12 - Aug 2 £4.6m discount, well done MA
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Gforce added 20:20 - Aug 2 Two deals sounding very close,we're certainly going for it. Only a LB,RB,LCB,STK,& two more CM and we are done !! Come on Mark not much to ask !
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Monkey_Blue added 20:24 - Aug 2 This one appeals far more than Lukic who gets booked more often than a hotel room
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DeliasMashedPotato added 20:33 - Aug 2 Don't know much about the lad.. wouldnt read too much into his time at Burnley though, they were poor across the board. Let's hope he keeps us up!
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Mark added 20:37 - Aug 2 I hope this gets over the line, as he could be a key signing. It is nice to get him for less than Burley paid too, as often in the past few years clubs selling to us made big profits in a short space of time.
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rugbytomc added 20:43 - Aug 2 I wonder how the Hull owner is getting on with his percentages! Sounds like a good deal. Get Lukic as well and that would be superb. The fact none of their fans want him to go and would rather others go instead speaks volumes. Who said he gets booked loads? Er Morsy did alright for us!
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Lincs_Bluebelly added 20:51 - Aug 2 A friend of mine who's a Burnley season ticket holder says he's great up to the point that he has to cross a ball!
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DifferentGravy added 20:52 - Aug 2 Big mistake for me. Maeda is a team player..........
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Saxonblue74 added 20:59 - Aug 2 Recruitment is going very well, but we'll have to be patient with all these new faces coming in. It's going to take a while to click I'd imagine.
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RetroBlue added 21:02 - Aug 2 Go, Town recruitment team...whooaaah!!
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jas0999 added 21:15 - Aug 2 Good news!
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muccletonjoe added 21:22 - Aug 2 Yes, that is an extremely good deal. Getting a very decent player
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mow_the_lawn added 21:42 - Aug 2 £16m is a 20% saving from £20m which might seem like a good deal but only if he is actually worth more than £16m in the first place. If he isn’t and Benfica have a clever sell on clause, they’ll have had both Burnley and us in the space of a month or so. His value ranges from €14-16m (£12m-£14m) according to various sources.
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Gforce added 21:45 - Aug 2 @Bazza.......It makes up somewhat the 6+ million we'll lose on Szmodics.
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timkatieadamitfc added 21:57 - Aug 2 Why saxonblue? Sunderland have just qualified for Europe with basically a new team, don’t buy into this gelling one bit, Forest haven’t done too bad either doing pretty much the same as Sunderland.
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runningout added 22:28 - Aug 2 some people seem to think every transfer works… Not so! We are fortunate to have the funds from promotion to this league to take the risk
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PortmanTerrorist added 22:58 - Aug 2

I guess this is a fair deal for a decent player. We are obviously still short of numbers so the temptation is to think each signing somehow completes us....not so. He is not going to be a guaranteed starter with Azor around (assuming fit) unless GON goes with a double-pivot with 2 CDMs....in which case it is a bit worrying that neither of them are particularly good passers of the ball. Suppose that is what you get for £16m in the Prem !

Monkey_Blue added 23:01 - Aug 2

runningout 100% correct. If 50% of our signings work out we’d have done very well. We are fishing in maybe, maybe not pond. The nailed on success signings aren’t going to newly promoted sides. All our signings have a much larger degree of risk of failure than people on here realise or are prepared to admit.For example I was keen on Maeda before rumours even came up but the reality is he’s not played at anything like Prem level before. He’s been playing in Scotland for the most dominant team, creating the most chances against teams that would struggle in the championship. I think it’s a gamble worth taking but no one knows how he’ll measure up.

Lennie added 23:21 - Aug 2

Could be an outstanding buy …. Florentino Luís is a highly elite, specialist defensive midfielder who excels primarily as a destructive "destroyer" in front of the backline. His profile combines top-tier ball-winning metrics with disciplined tactical positioning. While his offensive contribution is minimal, his defensive shielding capabilities have drawn direct style comparisons to Claude Makélélé and N'Golo Kanté.Core StrengthsElite Tackling: He ranks among Europe's best for volume and efficiency, maintaining an average successful tackle rate of around 70%.Game Reading and Anticipation: He specializes in studying opponent body positioning and passing lanes, allowing him to systematically cut off central progression through heavy interception numbers.Tactical Discipline: He functions as a pure anchor, rarely leaving his zone, which offers complete freedom to more creative, attacking teammates.Safe Retention: When he recovers the ball, he is a calm, short-range passer who facilitates safe retention rather than risky forward play, maintaining an 86% passing completion rate.Noted WeaknessesZero Goal Threat: He provides virtually no attacking output, finishing his recent campaign with 0 goals and just 2 assists across 31 league games.Concentration Lapses: According to WhoScored evaluation profiles, occasional lapses in basic focus remain his primary developmental drawback….
Fingers crossed

armchaircritic59 added 00:05 - Aug 3

Lennie, very interesting, puts more meat on the bones that I found for myself. What I can say for certain is, if he turns out to be only 75% as effective as the " daddy " of CDM's Claude Makelele ( a true great, for those that never saw him play ) he'd be one of the bargains of this window for anyone anywhere at £16m.

Zero goal threat is very largely an irrelevance, how many did Azor score last season and Makelele himself ( 3 goals in 242 appearances for Chelsea/PSG ). Players like this are not creatives or goal scorers, they move the ball on to those that are. Shielding/destroying are what they're about.

If the deal gets over the line, time alone will tell what we have purchased, but it could be a diamond, whether it's polished or flawed, we'd find out.

chripswich added 03:13 - Aug 3 The fact that Enciso (a class act) wants to come and play for his previous manager does give me some confidence in the reputation & abilities of GON
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ITFCSG added 04:50 - Aug 3 Overrated player Looked bang average in a relegated Burnley side The club still haven’t learnt their lessons signing from relegated teams, especially Burnley? The famous Muric comes to mind!
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JewellintheTown added 05:58 - Aug 3 His stats say his value is around £14.5M & has steadily dropped since moving to Burnley. His stats back in 2022 were as low as £4M then rose dramatically while at Benfica, which is why Burnley came knocking. £16M might actually be a better deal for Burnley than us if his value keeps dropping.
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Linkboy13 added 07:22 - Aug 3 Looks like we are going to play with a defensive midfield set up with the creativity coming down the flanks. Five at the back two wing backs one winger a number ten and a loan striker.
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RetroBlue added 07:57 - Aug 3 We need someone to anchor that MF and protect that back line, if our coaching team/ manager can rekindle those attributes in him then we'll have a fantastic player and signing. Atm we have nothing!
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