Tottenham have work on their hands to convince Benfica to sell defender Morato in the January transfer window, with the Portuguese side uninterested in any deal.
That’s according to Record, who say Benfica don’t intend to let the defender depart despite Tottenham showing an interest in him.
The newspaper explains that the defender is in Spurs’ plans for the January transfer window as Ange Postecoglou continues his rebuild and, seemingly, looks for alternatives to Micky van de Ven.
With him out injured and Cristian Romero suspended it’s shown central defence to be something of a weak point and that could get worse in the coming months if Eric Dier moves on as expected.
They don’t want to let Morato leave, believing he could become even more valuable in the near future when he is a full starter and regular in the team.
That could happen next season as the man currently blocking him, Antonio Silva, is ‘being coveted by several sharks’ and may depart.
Benfica may not be able to resist any offers and so see Morato as the replacement, knowing his value as he a left-footed central defender, a rare and prized commodity in the modern game.
Thus, they don’t want to sell and demonstrated this in the summer when they refused to sell to Fulham and Nottingham Forest, who offered €25m and €30m respectively.
Tottenham, it seems, will have to offer considerably more to even make the Eagles think about a move, which at this moment in time seems to have been completely ruled out.
