Yesterday, O Jogo of Portugal reported Spurs’ revisited interest in Uruguyuan midfielder Manuel Ugarte, who many Spurs fans may very well recall from our turgid encounters against Sporting CP in the Champions League this season.
The report states that Spurs have been casting some keen glances on Uruguay during the Qatar World Cup, in which the man in question Ugarte is currently on international duty alongside our own Uruguyuan, Rodrigo Bentancur.
Whether or not Bentancur is doing a Perisic (see yesterday’s article on this here) in persuading Ugarte to join him is not clear, but who would bet against it?
Indeed, the 21-year-old Ugarte impressed in both of Spurs’ matches against Sporting CP this season. Although his stats from the 1-1 draw in North London are marred somewhat by the fact that we overwhelmed the Portuguese outfit in the second half in search of a goal, Ugarte still managed to complete 89% of his passes and register an interception in October’s match (stats via SofaScore).
In the preceding encounter – which Sporting won 2-0 – Ugarte impressed greatly, registering an 89.3% pass completion, 4 interceptions, and 3 tackles (via WhoScored).
However, Ugarte has yet to feature for Uruguay in the World Cup, and his country, who have looked underwhelming in Qatar, and following Thursday’s draw with South Korea and defeat to Portugal yesterday, find themselves on the precipice of an early exit from the tournament.
The Uruguayan midfielder has a hefty release clause of around £52 million, which Sporting are allegedly looking to hike up to closer to £65-£70 million. Again, like yesterday’s Gviardol links, the hefty fee involved makes for me makes me highly doubt that this has any substantial legs, at least for a January transfer.