Sporting Club de Portugal’s failure to qualify for the semi-finals of the Europa League may have handed Newcastle United their chance to sign Manuel Ugarte.
That’s according to Leonino, who say that coupled with the Champions League being practically out of reach, means the Portuguese side will need a big sale this summer.
They state that, according to their information, the Lions are ‘preparing to sell’ at least one of the stars of their current squad and Ugarte is one of the players in pole position in that regard.
Sporting know that he has a raft of suitors after leaving a ‘good image’ with his performances in Europe this season and any sale would allow them to ‘make a significant financial gain’.
They fail to name any suitors in particular but Newcastle are known to be among them, with several reports having made it clear he is on their list of potential targets.
They may have now been handed their chance as Sporting will need to make at least one major sale to help balance the books.
Their goal is to raise €60-80m from a sale but first they want to negotiate to get as much of the player’s rights as possible. They current own 60% of him but that is set to increase by 10% if he plays a few more games for the club.
That figure can increase to 80% via more appearances and there is a hope to negotiate with Fénix, his ‘training club’, who own the other 20%. Those negotiations have been going for a while without success, though.
However, the arrival of Mateo Tanlongo in January was seen as Sporting covering themselves in the event of Ugarte leaving this summer.
That is now increasingly likely to happen as Sporting have ‘no other alternative’ but to sell a star player this summer after this failure in Europe and Ugarte is the prime candidate. Whether Newcastle win the race, remains to be seen.
