Aston Villa and Tottenham are both keeping a close eye on Cercle Brugge ahead of the summer and potential options to bolster their squads.
That’s at least according to the Belgian club’s technical director Rembert Vromant, who, in conversation with Het Laatste Nieuws, has insisted Tottenham and Aston Villa are among a big list of clubs looking at his current squad.
Cercle Brugge are yet to really benefit from a major departure, with the Belgian side’s record exit in their history currently Ayase Ueda’s move to Feyenoord last season.
That is followed by Olivier Deman’s €4m move to Werder Bremen in the same market, with the previous record before that having been Tom de Sutter’s €3.1m move to Anderlecht in 2008/09.
However, three of their top five transfer exits did come last summer, indicating that the club may have started a new trend of the Belgian club selling their stars for a higher price.
The current stand out option is striker Kevin Denkey, who is currently valued at around €13m after bagging 23 goals in 28 games in the Jupiler Pro League this season.
That makes him the top goal scorer in the division by some distance and given Igor Thiago, who sits third in the standings with 16 goals, has just moved to Brentford for nearly €40m, the prospect of a big move is certainly growing ahead of the summer.
That’s something Vromant is certainly aware of, and even names Aston Villa and Tottenham among the clubs keeping an eye on developments.
“Alan Minda and Felipe Augusto have a lot of potential,” he said.
“I think our central defenders should be valued more. We are taking Daland’s departure into account this summer. And then of course there is Kevin Denkey. From the calls I receive for him, I notice that he is very good at market.
“We are now in the phase where files from the head scout for all teams end up on the desk of the technical director. The decisions are made: who do we go for? Well, in England, Germany and France, teams want to go for Denkey.
“Listen, an average of sixteen scouts come to watch every home match. I have seen the level of those scouts rise this season.
“Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea, Lens, Lille, Salzburg, Leverkusen, Ajax, Aston Villa… They don’t come only for our opponent, believe me. We bring very interesting players. A young, athletic profile with a good mentality.”
