Newcastle United have been credited with an interest in the highly rated Benfica defender Nuno Tavares.
According to Portuguese outlet O Jogo, the 21-year old star is on United’s shortlist and the Lisbon club value him at around the £13M mark.
Newcastle United are weighing up a move for highly rated 21-year-old Benfica defender Nuno Tavares who is rated at around £13m. #nufc [O Jogo] pic.twitter.com/XAOaAc79Pk
— NUFC 360 (@NUFC360) April 21, 2021
At the age of just 21, Tavares has represented the Portuguese giants on 37 occasions and has also been a prominent part in the Portugal youth set up sides in the past few years.
It is clear that the player had a decent pedigree. On transfermarkt, his main position is listed as left back but he is also supposedly comfortable operating on the other side on the defence.
The left back area is one where United are relatively well stocked with Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett both having played there recently and putting in some good performances in the process.
It wasn’t too long ago that United splashed out on Jamal Lewis and whilst he hasn’t had the best of first seasons , he has shown glimpses of promise.
However, Ritchie is now on the wrong side of 30 and Dummett may well be of more use in a central role as he does not posses the flare and pace that is usually required in the modern day full back so this is a deal that could make sense.
On the whoscored website, two of Tavares’ strengths are listed as crossing and key passes which shows that he fits the bill for the full back of today and he could be a useful asset in our arsenal.
Listed of weaknesses is concentration, which again is something synonymous with young full backs coming through which has been the main downfall of Lewis in his maiden season with the mags.
It seems fairly unlikely that Newcastle will have a lot of money to spend this summer and with last summer’s approach being to value Premier League experience, I personally find it hard to believe that we will part with £13M a player like Tavares.