Spurs, Villa or Newcastle ‘highly likely’ £35m transfer to be delayed as ‘tempting offers’ mooted
Apparently, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa or Newcastle United are ‘highly likely’ to sign Igor Thiago from Brentford in January. Hmm, we’re not sure…
There is perhaps no finer example than Thiago of a Premier League footballer being ‘like a new signing’ this season.
Last year, Brentford paid a club-record fee to sign Thiago for around £30m to replace Ivan Toney, but he missed most of his debut campaign due to injury.
Thiago came with plenty of fanfare after scoring goals for fun at Ludogorets and Club Brugge, but his prolonged lay-off last season meant he exited most football fans’ minds ahead of this season, in which he has been a revelation for Brentford.
The 24-year-old is a key reason why Brentford have been completely fine without Thomas Frank, Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa and Christian Norgaard and have even thrived under Keith Andrews, who has the pre-season relegation favourites on the verge of the Premier League top-half.
READ: Premier League Christmas jumpers ranked from best to festive worst
Record-breaking Erling Haaland is already running away with this season’s Golden Boot award, but Thiago is his closest rival with eleven goals in 13 matches for Brentford this term.
Naturally, Thiago’s immense start to this campaign is fuelling reports linking the striker with a transfer, which could reportedly come as soon as the winter transfer window.
According to Caught Offside, Spurs, Aston Villa and Newcastle are all ‘eyeing’ Thiago ahead of January as they are ‘very interested’ in signing the in-form striker.
It is also claimed that the Bees are ‘not feeling too optimistic about keeping him beyond January’.
MUST-READ FEATURES ON F365…
👉 Premier League player power rankings: Haaland first but Rice is coming; Salah drops out of top 30
👉 Haaland most goals, xG, big chances missed and shots: 2025/26 Premier League player statistics
👉 Every Prem club’s player of the season so far includes four sold by Newcastle
A source for the outlet claimed: “Newcastle, Spurs and Villa are strongly interested after closely scouting Igor Thiago.
“Even Brentford know now that they’re highly likely to receive tempting offers for him when the transfer window opens again.”
Another source added: “Unai Emery is a big fan and sees Thiago as ideal to be the long-term replacement for Ollie Watkins.”
Yeah, right…
These sources can’t have been paying attention to how Brentford have operated in recent years when providing this information, because their past work proves that they will not let Thiago leave easily.
The outlet also claims that Thiago’s valuation is around £35m, and this is surely an underselling of the forward, who would more realistically set clubs back at least £50m in January.
This is partly because it would take an outrageous offer for Brentford to sell their prized asset in January and leave them short in attack for the remainder of the season, with a suitable replacement unlikely to be sourced in the same month. Also, he is deserving of a bigger fee due to his stellar form.
Newcastle are certainly the least likely of the three sides to eventually sign Thiago, as they are well-stocked in attack with Wissa and Nick Woltemade, while Spurs and Aston Villa are lacking in forward areas.
But they will likely have to wait until the summer to get their man, because Brentford could easily price clubs out of a move until they have a replacement in place, and this is far more achievable at the end of this season than in January.