Tottenham will have to pay £44 million if they want to land their Real Madrid midfielder Mateo Kovacic, according to Football London.
The football website reports that Spurs will have to trigger the release clause in the Croatian’s contract if they are to sign him in this summer’s transfer window after the he revealed he wanted to leave the Bernabeu because of lack of game time.
Real general director Jose Angel Sanchez claimed last year that Mauricio Pochettino’s side did submit a concrete offer for the midfielder.
He only made 21 appearances for the La Liga outfit during the 2017/2018 campaign, meaning he is willing to move to seek out first-team football.
OPINION
With the Croatian international growing frustrated with not having regular game time, now seems the perfect time for Tottenham to snap him up. £44 million may seem like a very high release clause for a player that is not playing all the time however, and it will appear to be seen whether they will pay Real Madrid this sum of money. Kovacic has the potential to be a top-class midfielder and he is more than capable of achieving that at Tottenham, but he is definitely not worth £44 million. If he is unhappy in Spain, then a move to North London would be perfect for him to resurrect his ability as a central midfielder – after all, club and country team mate Luka Modric played for Spurs and he has enjoyed a fantastic playing career so far. Tottenham have an abundance of attacking midfielders in the form of Dele Alli, and will need someone to partner Eric Dier in the central midfield. Kovacic would link up well with him and form a solid partnership for Tottenham that would provide suitable cover for the club’s back four.