Tottenham Hotspur increasing interest in Braga striker Paulinho

With the summer transfer window slowly approaching its end, several European clubs will be making haste to bring in players to their club in a bid to strengthen their team for the 2020/21 campaign. While many clubs are satisfied with their signings so far, some clubs are not.

Tottenham Hotspur started their 2020/21 Premier League campaign with a defeat at the hands of Everton. A 1-0 defeat to the Toffees was enough for them to understand the need to bring in new players to the club despite having bounced back against Southampton in a 5-2 victory at the Saint Mary’s Stadium in the second game week.

Although they have completed the signings of Sergio Reguilón and Gareth Bale from La Liga, Spurs are still keen on bringing in Braga’s Portuguese star Paulinho. 

Premier League giants Tottenham have been reported to be considering a move for the Braga striker with the hopes of easing the stress on their striker Harry Kane, who plays week in week out for the team except when he’s sidelined by injury.

Spurs manager José Mourinho has repeatedly stated his plans to bring in a new striker to the club this summer, having had enough of using Lucas Moura, Dele Alli, Son Heung-min, and Steven Bergwijn up front while their most formidable striker was battling back to fitness from a long-term injury last season, making scoring goals a struggle.

Two weeks ago, the Portuguese manager talked about a lack of balance in his options at the front end of the team, laying claim that the team needs to sign a new centre forward to solve this issue.

According to reports currently making the rounds in the media such as via 90 minutes, Tottenham Hotspur have been scouting Europe for potential forwards and Braga forward Paulinho, who had formerly been linked with Wolverhampton Wanderers earlier in the summer transfer window, is a top target. This follows on from reports in the Portuguese press earlier in the year that the London club were on the cusp of signing the free-scoring striker.

Paulinho has made a name for himself in Europe thanks to the number of goals he scores every season. In the past four campaigns with Braga, the 27-year-old striker notched double figures in goals for the club.

In 2019/20, he found the back of the net 25 times in 48 appearances for the Portuguese club. With goalie gloves for professionals, Braga goalkeeper Matheus was able to keep FC Porto from scoring during the Taça da Liga final, as Paulinho’s goals and Matheus’ keeping helped them win the cup, as well as finishing 3rd and beating all of Portugal’s top sides over the course of the season to make it a memorable campaign.

The report from 90min claims that the 27-year-old striker is likely to be available for less than £30 million and the London club are willing to step up their interest in signing the striker.

Should the Spurs move to go through, Paulinho should have no problem adapting to the Tottenham style of football as his style has been compared to that of Harry Kane, who is dependent on both his physicality and agility in an impressive way. He had a taste against English opposition after facing the Wolves in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League last season, scoring in the match, and his display against Nuno Espírito Santo’s ratcheted up Wolves’ interest in the player.

Santo ultimately decided to sign Porto’s striker Fabio Silva for a club-record fee, thus making Spurs the current front runners in the race sign Paulinho.