Record in Portugal have been leading the news on the move of Manuel Ugarte to West London, and according to them it’s a done deal.
Today they give all the details of the operation, including claiming that his medical will take place this coming week.
Chelsea will apparently pay Sporting CP €60m for the player, which matches his release clause. They’re also offering €5m in bonuses, which presumably means they don’t have to pay the release clause in one lump sum up front. This is a similar structure to the one that secured them Enzo Fernandez from Sporting’s rivals Benfica back in January.
They add that Chelsea are offering the Uruguay international a €3.5m per season net salary – significantly less than the €6.5m PSG are offering. Clearly we haven’t lost all of our pulling power just yet, despite a dreadful season.
We don’t yet know whether this is down to Mauricio Pochettino’s presence, but now he’s been confirmed as our new coach we would expect that he’s at the very least given the green light to this first major move of the summer.
With Jorginho gone, N’Golo Kante seemingly set to leave on a free transfer, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mateo Kovacic already half out of the door, this provides fresh legs to a midfield that really needs them. We may yet see another central midfield arrive at this rate.
Splendid