Report: Tottenham now eyeing £70m South American talent

By Lee Connor

Tottenham are continuing to keep an eye on Uruguayan midfielder, Manuel Ugarte, as Antonio Conte continues to plan for January.

Ugarte is one of the players said to be on Tottenham’s radar. It’s not the first time Ugarte has been linked with Spurs either, following reports in October that the London outfit were eyeing a big money move.

However, while nothing came of that interest, O’Jogo is reporting today that Tottenham are continuing to keep a close eye on Ugarte over in Qatar. There is a hope that the midfielder could feature for Uruguay against Portugal tomorrow, giving Spurs scouts the ideal chance to get an in depth look.

Ugarte, 21, has been a regular for Sporting Lisbon this season and looks every bit the Premier League player in the making. He is known well by current Spurs midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, and Antonio Conte might well hope that helps lure the midfielder to London.

A previous report from Record cited how Ugarte had a £53m release clause. However, Sporting were – at the time – hoping to improve that clause to closer to the £70m mark.

Regardless of both those numbers, it seems like Spurs will need to make a big outlay in January if they want to land Ugarte.

TBR’s View: Ugarte and Bentancur idea is interesting for Spurs

At 21 and coming from the Portuguese league, there’ll be a lot for Ugarte to learn if he is to make the jump to the Premier League with Spurs.

Of course, the potential is there with Ugarte. You don’t feature regularly for Sporting and get called up by Uruguay if you don’t have a bit about you.

At over £50m, he might be expensive. But if he can play well against Portugal and help Uruguay get going in this World Cup, then he could be value for money.