Tottenham Hotspur scouts were present at the Champions League match between Benfica and CSKA last night, reports O Jogo.
Although Tottenham are now considered one of the ‘big sharks’ when the Portuguese press talk about the Premier League transfer market, they weren’t linked with many Benfica players during the summer
Tottenham were said to be keen on Ljubomir Fejsa, but it seemed a rumour to help the player to get a new contract, as it came out of nothing and after months of negotiations, the new deal was made official earlier this week.
But there’s still another interesting reason why the Premier League side were at the Estádio da Luz last night, and that’s because they’ve recently been linked to CSKA’s Aaron Olanare.
The Russian press said the club were following him at the end of the transfer window, and scouted him in CSKA’s Champions League qualifier against Young Boys.
That Tottenham were at CSKA’s next European match backs up the earlier claims.
Despite CSKA’s 2-1 away win, Olanare couldn’t do much for his side, and was even called ‘null’ by O Jogo.
Tottenham could obviously be there for other reasons, even to scout possible opponents for the knockout stage, as both Benfica and CSKA have good chances of qualifying.
But in case Tottenham were there expecting other players to impress, there were a few who had decent performances. Benfica’s Bruno Varela, Alex Grimaldo and Andrija Živković did well for the home side, but Viktor Vasin, Pontus Wernbloom, Vitinho and super sub Timur Zhamaletdinov were the crucial names in CSKA’s win.
