Tottenham Hotspur could look to bring in Inter and Italy centre-back Alessandro Bastoni to north London next summer, after the Italian giants reportedly prioritised keeping hold of fellow centre-back Milan Škriniar.
That is according to Dharmesh Sheth of Sky Sports, who was speaking to GiveMeSport about the club’s transfer plans this season.
Antonio Conte’s side have already made six additions to their side during the transfer window thus far, with Djed Spence’s arrival for a fee of up to £20m from Middlesbrough being the latest.
Spurs’ business this summer also includes the arrival of Barcelona and France centre-back Clément Lenglet, who has arrived on a season-long loan from Camp Nou.
But according to reports in Italy, Inter have decided that they would rather prioritise keeping Škriniar at the club over Bastoni, despite the fact that the Italian has seemingly confirmed that he will be staying at the San Siro this season, amid rumours of interest from Tottenham.
Sheth believes that Spurs will keep a close eye on the 23-year-old’s situation for the remainder of the transfer window and could look to make a move on the defender next summer.
He said: “Because Lenglet is a loan signing, maybe Tottenham have got a longer-term target in mind to go for next summer.
“Earlier on in the window, they were very, very interested in the Inter Milan defender Alessandro Bastoni, but Inter simply would not sell him.
“They consider him as one of their crown jewels, I think.
“But he’s only got two years left on his contract, so I think Tottenham will be keeping an eye on that next summer and, if he doesn’t sign a new deal, they will see if there’s a potential deal to be done.”
TIF Thoughts on Sheth’s comments
We believe that the signing of Bastoni would be an extremely solid addition for a Spurs side who could be looking to play with a back-three system under Conte next season.
The 15-time Italy international is extremely competent with the ball at his feet, something which is critical to playing in such a system, and this is shown by the fact that he ranked in the top 1% of centre-backs across Europe’s top five leagues and European competitions for progressive passes received per 90 minutes last season (1.18), according to FBref.
We think that Conte would be absolutely delighted with the addition of Bastoni and that he has the ability to take Tottenham to the next level, and potentially enable them to push both Manchester City and Liverpool whenever he may arrive at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.