Despite the traction it got, yesterday’s last-minute shock twist over Jose Cifuentes from South American journalist Samuel Venâncio was either fiction, or completely fell through, and the Ecuador international did not end up at Michael Beale’s Sunderland.
Indeed, the switch to Brazilian giants Cruzeiro remains on, and for now Cifu remains a Rangers player.
The Cruzeiro interest is valid – Brazil’s transfer window is open till March 7th so they have tonnes of time to get this deal sorted.
And Cifuentes has very much turned Turkey down so he will not being going to Rizespor, who Rangers accepted that £2M bid from.
But the Sunderland story which broke mid-afternoon yesterday just shows how many manic twists and turns there can be on Deadline Day and how it’s hard to strictly believe anything.
Not because the stories are necessarily untrue, but because things change in the final days of a transfer window, and at the drop of a hat on Deadline Day.
A player can actually believe he’s going to a particular club at 1PM and then it changes at 3PM and he’s going to another.
And Cifu is one who’s been connected with 3 clubs in basically a week – Rizespor, Cruzeiro and Sunderland.
And it seems Cruzeiro is the one that will get the boy, with a deal likely to be struck before March. Plenty of time.
This story really has had a lot of twists and turns, but it is pretty clear Cifu isn’t in favour under Philippe Clement and isn’t, it seems, happy at Rangers.
We’ll see if he gets his Brazil move over the coming weeks.