Spurs could sign their answer to Ugarte with late £50m transfer

Submitted by daniel on
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It's been a busy summer of transfers for Tottenham Hotspur this year, both in terms of incomings and outgoings.

Daniel Levy and Co have seen the likes of Emerson Royal, Oliver Skipp, and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg leave. At the same time, Archie Gray, Wilson Odobert and Dominic Solanke joined the Ange Postecoglou revolution.

Now, with just under two days left until the window finally comes to a close, most teams would call it a day, but according to recent reports, the Lilywhites are still keen on several Premier League stars.

The latest name touted for a move to the club would be a real coup and could become Ange's answer to Manuel Ugarte.

Tottenham Hotspur transfer news

According to transfers expert Dean Jones on the latest episode of the Ranks FC Podcast, Tottenham are interested in Wolverhampton Wanderers dynamo Joao Gomes.

Jones claims that Spurs "want someone with power from the midfield" and that they really "like Joao Gomes at Wolves."

There is no mention as to how much the Brazilian powerhouse would cost the North Londoners, but reports linking him with a move to N17 earlier this month revealed that a fee in the region of £50m would be enough to tempt the Old Gold into selling.

It would be a costly and potentially quite tricky deal to get done with such little time left in the window, but given Gomes' ability, it is one worth pursuing, especially as he's won comparisons to Ugarte before.

Why Gomes would be a great signing

Okay, so before getting into why Gomes would be such an incredible signing for the Lilywhites, let's examine this comparison to Ugarte and where it comes from.

So, this specific comparison stems from Football Transfers, which considers the Uruguayan to be the eighth most similar player to the Brazilian in their entire database, and it's not hard to see why.

For example, like the Montevideo-born star, the Wolves ace is a hard-working teammate who can occupy both defensive and central midfield, and while the former Sporting CP ace starts far more games in the former, his heatmap from last season shows that he operates slightly higher up the pitch.

Additionally, both players make an extraordinary number of tackles. For example, according to FBref, which compares players in similar positions across Europe's top five leagues, the Champions League and Europa League, the soon-to-be Red Devil and the former Flamengo star sit in the top 1% of midfielders for tackles per 90.

So, while it's clear that the Rio de Janeiro-born star shares some impressive defensive characteristics with Ugarte; he could also offer Postecoglou more going forward.

Respected data analyst Ben Mattinson described the 23-year-old as an "all-action eight" who's a "dog of a ball winner" and, perhaps most important of all in terms of what he can bring in the final third, an "excellent box-crasher."

Ultimately, while it's undoubtedly late in the day to bring in a new midfielder, Gomes appears to be the perfect addition to this Spurs side, as someone who can help mop up attacks and then get on the end of a rapid counterattack as well. Therefore, while it would be costly, Levy and Co should do what they can to bring Postecoglou his answer to Ugarte.