TalkSport football correspondent Alex Crook has claimed that Tottenham Hotspur will now allocate the ‘bulk’ of their remaining transfer budget towards bringing in a new centre-back this summer.
Spurs have been making quite the splash in the transfer market already, with four new names brought to the club.
After Ivan Perisic and Fraser Forster were brought in, Antonio Conte added to his midfield with the arrival of Yves Bissouma for an initial £30m before completing the £60m signing of Everton’s Richarlison in attack.
They are also working on a deal to bring Middlesbrough’s Djed Spence to the club, however, the Lilywhites are yet to add a centre-back, where the Italian manager is thought to have been prioritising this off-season – more specifically, a left-sided one.
Crook has now suggested that is the area the Hotspur Way executives will be shifting the majority of their attention to throughout the remainder of the transfer window.
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He told GiveMeSport: “I think it’s a centre-back they want because he wants to play with a back three with Djed Spence, and Perisic might play as a left wing-back.
“So, I think the bulk of the cash will go on a central defender. We know that Fabio Paratici has been meeting various agents in Italy, so I would imagine it would be a centre-back from Serie A, possibly one of the names we’ve heard about already.”
TIF Thoughts on Spurs…
Fabio Paratici’s knowledge of the Italian market would point to Serie A being Spurs’ scouting area of choice, but having been unsuccessful in their attempts to land Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni, it seems as if Barcelona’s Clement Lenglet is the man they have their eye on.
The north London outfit are reportedly targeting a season-long loan move for the Frenchman as they look to find a competitor for Ben Davies in that left-sided centre-back role.
A deal certainly seems plausible given Barcelona’s financial crisis, while Tottenham wouldn’t be fully committing to a player who made just seven league starts in Catalonia last season.
It remains to be seen whether the 27-year-old is the avenue they go down, but it is apparent that Daniel Levy’s wallet isn’t closed for business just yet – and centre-back does seem to be the next area to be strengthened, as Crook suggests.