Watford transfer rumours: Update emerges regarding Hornets' Jovane Cabral pursuit | OneFootball

Watford's transfer business this summer has shown no signs of slowing down as manager Xisco Munoz has made a brisk start to the club's preparations for the 2021/22 campaign.

With the Hornets set to face Aston Villa in the Premier League on August 14th, it will be intriguing to see whether the club decide to make any further alterations to their squad.

After sealing deals for Kwadwo Baah, Mattie Pollock, Imran Louza, Danny Rose and Ashley Fletcher, Watford revealed yesterday that they were edging closer to sealing a deal for Emmanuel Dennis.

As confirmed by the club's official website, the Hornets have reached an agreement with Club Brugge over the transfer of the forward and are now finalising personal terms.

Seemingly not content with six new arrivals, Watford have recently been linked with a move for one of Sporting Lisbon's exciting young talents.

A report from TuttoMercatoWeb (as cited by Sport Witness) last week suggested that the Hornets were close to securing the services of Jovane Cabral.

The winger, whose current deal at Sporting is set to run until 2023, was used predominantly as a substitute by the club during the previous campaign as he only started six of his 24 league appearances.

Despite his lack of game-time, Cabral still managed to provide 13 direct goal contributions in all competitions.

In a fresh update concerning Watford's pursuit of the winger, it has now been revealed how much money they will have to pay in order to complete a deal.

According to Portuguese news outlet A Bola (as cited by Sport Witness), Sporting are unwilling to sell Cabral unless they receive an offer believed to be in the region of €15m (£12.8m) to €20m (£17.1m) in the coming months.

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GIVEMESPORT's Joshua Cole says...

Whilst Cabral does possess a great deal of talent, there is no guarantee that he will be able to thrive in the Premier League next season and thus it would be a risk by Watford to meet Sporting's valuation this summer.

Furthermore, when you consider that the Hornets already have Ismaila Sarr and Ken Sema at their disposal, the Cape Verde international may struggle to force his way into the club's starting eleven next season.

Whereas Cabral did manage to average a respectable WhoScored match rating of 6.72 during the previous campaign, his development was stifled somewhat by the inability to overtake the likes of Bruno Goncalves and Nuno Santos in the pecking order at Sporting.

In order to have the best chance of fulfilling his potential, it could be argued that Cabral needs to join a team who will be able to offer him regular first-team football and thus a move to Watford may not be wise at this stage of his career.