Tottenham and Barcelona eye Vangelis Pavlidis transfer

Vangelis Pavlidis celebrates with his Benfica teammates (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Vangelis Pavlidis has started this season on fire in front of goal, netting 14 times in his first 13 appearances for Benfica in all competitions.

As first reported via the Daily Briefing, this has heightened the interest of top Premier League clubs and teams elsewhere in Europe, with Pavlidis having already been on several sides’ radars during the summer.

I can now reveal that Tottenham have been scouting Pavlidis extensively, while Aston Villa and Fulham are also long-time admirers. Across Europe, the Greece international is also attracting admiring glances from big names like Barcelona, AC Milan, and Juventus.

The 27-year-old scored 30 goals in all competitions last season, as well as 30 the year before that, so his prolific form is nothing new, even if the consistency of his performances is now getting harder to ignore.

At the moment, everything is still at an early stage, and there’s no indication of talks or offers happening just yet.

Vangelis Pavlidis in action for Benfica (Photo by Jose Manuel Alvarez Rey/Getty Images)

However, I’m reliably told by figures in the industry that Tottenham are “making a striker a top priority for January”. This comes as they seem to be paying particularly close attention to Pavlidis.

There is little indication, however, that a January deal will be possible as Benfica absolutely do not want to sell in the middle of the season.

The Portuguese giants have also protected the player with a €100m release clause, so any interested clubs will surely have to wait until next summer to get into serious negotiations to try to bring that fee down.

The Catalan giants tried to sign Julian Alvarez during the summer as they looked for a top class replacement for Robert Lewandowski, but in the end they settled for a short-term and low-cost solution in the form of Gabriel Jesus.