Following initial reports from the Portuguese media regarding Aston Villa’s interest in Sporting midfielder Manuel Ugarte, the chase for the player gets big attention today.
It’s newspaper A Bola who, on Wednesday, write that Unai Emery’s side now ‘attack’ the 22-year-old, as they become ‘serious candidates’ to land him.
The outlet says Aston Villa want to reinforce their midfield, and ‘started exploratory contacts’ to know the conditions of this potential signing.
A Bola points out that Sporting have been demanding €60m for the sale, but Villa would like to see that price dropped to €40m or €50m.
Even though Aston Villa may sound like just one of the Premier League clubs who want Ugarte, as he’s been linked to a few others lately, the newspaper is actually quite optimistic about this specific scenario.
They write that even though Ugarte has been linked to Chelsea and Liverpool, it’s the Villa Park side who show up as ‘likely destination’ for the Uruguayan player.
The story highlights that the club want to ‘return to their golden age’, and for that, will have Mateu Alemany in charge to build a squad. It’s said ‘there will be money’ to invest and that’s why Ugarte is a real option.
