Tottenham Hotspur had an official watch the Champions League match between FC Porto and Besiktas on Wednesday evening.
A dig into the Sport Witness scouting vault has brought up some possible connections and hints at future targets for Tottenham, and it comes a day after they watched Benfica in Lisbon.
FC Porto will have been disappointed to lose the game 3-1 to Besiktas, but it wasn’t a disaster in terms of performance.
Tottenham’s previous scouting
Spurs have watched Porto already this season, having officials present against Estoril on August 9th, and Tondela on August 13th.
At the time the standout target for Tottenham was Ricardo Pereira, a right back. He can also play left back, but his main position is absolutely the right, which perhaps makes him a little too similar to Serge Aurier.
Claims of Tottenham interest in Pereira certainly seemed genuine in the summer, but that’s likely now something of the past. There’s always a chance the August trips weren’t for the fullback and there was another target in mind, given Tottenham aren’t one of the Premier League clubs who scout Portugal matches obsessively.
Pereira was the standout man against Tondela, and it striker Moussa Marega was the star man against Estoril.
Linked already with Tottenham
Putting Pereira to one side, old rumours about Iker Casillas can also be dismissed.
Tottenham, like several English clubs, have been linked previously with Yacine Brahimi, and very weakly linked with Marega. Brahimi has been doing well over the past season and could be primed for an exit in one of the next two windows.
On the Besiktas side, Spurs have been linked quite strongly with Oguzhan Ozyakup. Sport Witness covered a report from Turkey in April: Turkish newspaper HaberTurk say it’s expected that Tottenham Hotspur will offer €12m for the midfielder, who it’s claimed Mauricio Pochettino ‘likes very much’.
Spurs have been weakly linked to Cenk Tosun, who almost joined Crystal Palace in the summer, and Talisca has been linked with everybody from Manchester United to Wolves.
In good companyIncluding Tottenham, Portuguese newspaper Record say 43 clubs attended the Porto match. Those included Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen.
Standout performers
Portuguese newspaper A Bola (their ratings below) believe Brahimi was Porto’s best, after him for the home side a few other picks would be Alex Telles, a 24 year old Brazil born left back, who conveniently has an Italian passport, Pereira, and much linked midfielder Danilo.
For the away side, Tosun scored a cracker, leaving Crystal Palace fans even more gutted they didn’t sign the 26 year old in the summer window. Talisca had a good game, scored, and he’s been lined up for a Premier League move for years.
Jose Mourinho and then Benfica manager Jorge Jesus had a public row some years ago about who had discovered the Brazilian. The 23 year old is actually owned by Benfica, and on loan in Turkey, a move next summer would surprise nobody.
Possibilities
Ozyakup is a standout transfer candidate and it would be no shock if a lot of the clubs present were keen to watch him tested. The 24 year old has a contract at Besiktas until June 2018, with the Turkish club confident on a renewal.
Formally an Arsenal youth player, the Gunners are entitled to 30% of a future sale amount, and Besiktas are trying to buy this back before getting the renewal signed and the potentially selling the player. Reports have stated the Turkish club want to pay Arsenal around €1m, which wouldn’t be a great deal.
With the Danny Rose ‘situation’, it’s worth picking out Alex Telles as a possibility, with Tottenham surely covering themselves against a future exit. Repeated Porto scouting would help underline him, and it’ll be interesting to see if Spurs return soon.
