OPINION
Tottenham are set to be at the centre of transfer headlines over the next 48 hours.
The Times reported yesterday that the club had made an offer for former Liverpool player Philippe Coutinho, with the Barcelona man available for a £21m loan fee.
Now, Sky Sports have reported that Tottenham have agreed a £64.4m fee for Juventus attacker Paulo Dybala.
Personal terms are yet to be agreed and image rights could reportedly be a problem.
Meanwhile, Sky state that Man United – who had an agreement in place with Juventus for Dybala, but were unable to agree terms with the player – are considering a late move for Christian Eriksen.
Can Spurs succeed where United failed?
There’s not much time left in the window and Sky are reporting that there could be an issue to resolve over personal terms.
However, Juventus obviously want to move him on and Tottenham can offer Champions League football, something that United couldn’t.
Dybala was on £124k-a-week at Juventus last season [Capology], which would put him right in the middle of the upper echelon of Tottenham salaries, topped by Harry Kane on £200,000-a-week [Spotrac].
However, according to the Sun he was demanding £350,000-a-week to move to Old Trafford. Put in context, that’s less than Alexis Sanchez and David de Gea, and his agent might scale demands down to fit the Tottenham wage structure.
If not, this deal would seem dead in the water.
Answer to big Tottenham problem
Tottenham fans will be hoping that’s not the case.
The biggest issue Mauricio Pochettino has had at Spurs is finding a player versatile enough or good enough to play second fiddle to Harry Kane.
In Dybala, he would have a player who can play in any of the attacking positions, including lone striker.
Dybala boasts a career record of 0.5 goals per 90 minutes [wyscout.com], delivers an average of just over 40 passes per 90 minutes with 86% accuracy and makes six dribbles per 90 with 49.8% accuracy.
From the 14/15 season, he’s scored 13, 19, 11 and 22 goals for Juventus, marred only by a disappointing 18/19 season where he managed just five in 30.
Dybala would offer Tottenham another brilliant attacking option with Kane on the pitch. If Kane was missing, Dybala could play the role of striker much better than a player like Fernando Llorente.
At 25, he would be a brilliant addition to the Tottenham squad.