Manchester City expect to announce Fernando this week as their first signing of the summer. The 26-year-old midfielder will cost around €20 million from Porto as the club seeks again to complete its transfer business early in the close season.
Fernando is expected to fly to Manchester to complete his medical and agree terms before officially becoming a City player. His impending arrival ensures that the champions have made the quick start to strengthening Manuel Pellegrini's squad that the manager, and Txiki Begiristain, the director of football, desire. It will be a difficult summer to operate in due to the constrictions of Uefa's financial fair play (FFP) sanctions and the disruption caused by the World Cup, which begins in Brazil on Thursday.
If Fernando does join in the coming days it will be further evidence of Begiristain’s ability to operate smartly in the market following the previous close season, when the Spaniard pulled off something of a coup by completing a quartet of top-class signings by mid-July.
In the corresponding week of last June Jesús Navas was bought from Sevilla to follow the purchase of Fernandinho from Shakhtar Donetsk a few days earlier. The signings of Álvaro Negredo and Stevan Jovetic came the next month as the club completed their transfer acquisitions less than three weeks after the window had opened.
While Pellegrini also wants a right-back - expected to be Arsenal's Bacary Sagna - and a centre-back, Fernando's purchase will allow the Chilean to bolster his central midfield options.
Because the Brazilian-born player - who has a Portuguese passport - is not taking part in the World Cup, City have been able to close the deal. Pellegrini is planning to play him in the holding role, in one of the two berths that were occupied by his countryman Fernandinho and Yaya Touré last season.
City came up short in big games, notably against Barcelona in the Champions League last 16, so Fernando’s arrival will allow Pellegrini more tactical flexibility as Touré could be pushed forward to give City a more solid defensive base.
Although the club are resolute Touré will not leave, despite the Ivorian making his disgruntlement public by supporting his agent’s claim he should have been given a birthday cake - City did, actually, give him one - Fernando’s acquisition will add greater midfield resources should the 31-year-old’s unhappiness continue when the squad reconvenes for pre-season training.
The former Vila Nova and Estrela Amadora midfielder, whose full name is Fernando Francisco Reges, is nicknamed The Octopus for an all-action style. He told Fifa.com last year: "I remember people started calling me 'Polvo' but I didn't really understand why. Later they told me it was because I seemed to be everywhere and had lots of legs. It was an encouraging sign of recognition for me."
Although he was capped at Under-20 level for his native Brazil Fernando was never given a senior international debut .
When it was not forthcoming, he then became a Portuguese national, though his attempt to play for the country at Brazil 2014 was thwarted earlier this year by Fifa.
"The Portuguese Football Federation was informed by Fifa that the player Fernando Reges isn't eligible to represent the national team," said the governing body. "Fifa considered that the player did not hold Portuguese nationality when he played for Brazil in the U20 World Cup qualifiers, as required by federation regulations."
Beyond Fernando and Sagna, who is involved in the tournament with France and expected to arrive on a free transfer from Arsenal, Pellegrini’s hopes of signing a top-class centre-back may not run as smoothly as the procuring of these two.
Sagna’s international team-mate Eliaquim Mangala, the club’s No1 transfer target, has expressed a preference to join Manchester United or Chelsea and wants to wait until after the World Cup to make a decision.
The stance of Mangala, who is priced at around £35m, has led City to identify Roma's Mehdi Benatia, a 27-year-old Morocco centre-back who would cost in the region of £20m, as a fall-back option.
The FFP sanctions placed on City limit the club to a £49m net spend this summer. If Fernando and Sagna are brought in for a cost of the €20m fee for the midfielder, then the purchase of a centre-back should be achieved within the ceiling with ease.
Guardian Service
