Life's great certainties: death, taxes and William Carvalho to England transfer talk. Ever since the Portuguese midfielder's brilliant debut season in 2013-14, he has been endlessly linked to a big-money move to the Premier League.
A surprise inclusion in the Lisbon club's squad at the time, then coach Leonardo Jardim proved what an astute judge of a young player he is. The Angolan-born powerhouse was a revelation and as the season reached its conclusion, hardly a day went by without a mooted move to England being peddled, with Arsenal especially strongly linked.
Four years down the line and Carvalho is still a Sporting player -- yet the speculation surrounding an impending move abroad, almost always to the Premier League, continues unabated. Last summer he was on the cusp of finally making the leap, to West Ham, only for the deal to fall through andtrigger an entertaining spat between the administrations of the two clubs.
The Hammers have not given up hope of landing him, with official scouts from the club in northern Portugal on Saturday evening to watch the player in action in Sporting's 1-1 draw against Moreirense.
Also in the stadium were representatives from Manchester United, Manchester City and Leonardo Jardim's Monaco. Despite a disappointing performance and result for the Lions, they would have reported another impressive display by Carvalho, who is back to his best this season, dispelling fears he would lack motivation upon failing to secure a move to a high-profile league.
The successive near misses in relation to his transfer, and the fact the nearest he has come to a move is to West Ham, begs the question about whether or not he is rated as a truly elite player by the world's top clubs. Voted MVP at the Under-21 European Championships in 2015, he lifted the trophy at senior level one year later and is a Portugal regular. Yet his critics claim he lacks the dynamism to dominate matches in a more competitive environment.
Although tactically and positionally astute, physically domineering and with wonderful distribution from his deep-lying position in midfield, his languid style, slow turning and absence of quick acceleration make him look sluggish and cumbersome at times. Four games against Barcelona and Juventus, the first of which in the Portuguese capital on Wednesday, could go a long way to dispelling -- or confirming -- doubts about whether Carvalho is the real deal.
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His positive attributes have been much in evidence in 2017-18, putting in a series of exceptional displays to help fire Sporting's tremendous start to the campaign. The green and whites have won eight, drawn three and lost none of their 11 games to date.
Despite the sale of long-time midfield partner Adrien Silva -- the pair worked wonderfully in tandem for Portugal in the latter stages of Euro 2016 -- Sporting are reaping the rewards of an excellent summer in the transfer market. Fellow midfielders Bruno Fernandes, Rodrigo Battaglia and Marcos Acuna have hit the ground running, lending Sporting a tough and energy enthused core, while experienced campaigners Fabio Coentrao, Jeremy Mathieu and Seydou Doumbia have all settled immediately.
That said, given Barcelona's impeccable start to their La Liga and Champions League campaigns, and as one of the most fancied teams to lift Europe's biggest club prize, the Spanish giants will naturally start as strong favourites on Wednesday.
As such, it is not only Carvalho who will look to this game as the perfect stage to make a big statement. Coach Jorge Jesus' reputation needs some repair after a miserable 2016-17. Arguably Sporting's best performance in two years under Jesus took place a year ago when facing the daunting challenge of Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. The Lions proceeded to play the European champions off the park for 85 minutes, before Cristiano Ronaldo and Alvaro Morata devastated their hopes of achieving a historic result.
For Jesus and Carvalho, a big performance and a surprise outcome in front of a 50,000 sell-out crowd at Alvalade could prove far more significant than three Champions League points.
For "JJ" it would buy him the time and trust to attack the rest of the season with the fans firmly back onside, starting with the visit of leaders Porto on Sunday. For Carvalho, it could finally persuade the decision-makers at England's top clubs that opening their bulging purse strings to bring the midfielder to the Premier League would be money well spent.
Source: espn.co.uk