Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur are all set to complete their first signing under gaffer Jose Mourinho with Benfica midfielder Gedson Fernandes due in London for a medical.
The London based club have agreed to sign the 21-year-old on an initial 18-month loan deal with an option to make the deal permanent for around £56million in summer 2021.
Having fallen out of favor at Benfica, Fernandes chose Spurs over West Ham after being offered to the north London club by Mourinho’s agent Jorge Mendes.
After the duo of Moussa Sissoko and Harry Kane both expected to be sidelined until April after undergoing surgery on injuries sustained at Southampton on New Year’s Day, Mourinho was desperate to sign cover.
Fernandes is a two-time Portugal international just like his countryman Sissoko and has a £100million release clause in his Benfica contract. A box-to-box midfielder, Gedson is the latest player to emerge from the Benfica academy that has produced the likes of Joao Felix, Ederson and Bernardo Silva in recent seasons.
Mourinho refused to discuss transfers following Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to Liverpool but admitted he was short of a striker and midfielder after handing a shock debut to 20-year-old center-half Japhet Tanganga, who impressed against the visitors’ celebrated front-three.
“It’s the last thing I want to do after this performance is talk about [new] players,” said Mourinho, who will address the media this afternoon ahead of tomorrow’s FA Cup third-round replay against Middlesborough.
“I think it’s a way to show respect to these guys is to not talk about new players. Can we say Tanganga is a new player? Can we say that? He never played a match for Tottenham in the Premier League. Today he played and today he proved that he can play for us. It’s a pity that he’s not a striker, it’s a pity that he’s not a midfield player, but he’s one more player that we have.”
Meanwhile, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy remains eager to sell Christian Eriksen in the present transfer window with reports in Italy claiming the Dane has agreed on a deal in principle with Inter Milan.
