Tottenham are preparing a fresh bid for an alternative to Eberechi Eze, while they’ve opened ‘talks’ a Paris Saint-Germain star as another option.
Spurs were dealt a huge blow on Wednesday night as Arsenal swooped in to beat them to the signing of Crystal Palace star Eze, with chairman Daniel Levy forced back to the drawing board in his bid to replace the injured James Maddison.
They’ve been heavily linked with Manchester City’s Savinho, but little progress has been made, with Duncan Castles providing an update on other attacking options they’re considering.
“If it isn’t Savinho, who will be expensive, there’s also interest in Maghnes Akliouche at Monaco,” Castles said on The Transfers Podcast.
“He’s a 23-year-old, very skilful and quick left-footed forward, who tends to play off the right wing, but can also play centrally. Like Eze, he’s an excellent dribbler of the ball.
“Complications in that deal are the agent, who has a reputation of being extremely difficult to deal with, and the asking price of Monaco, which was set at €70 million this summer.
“Another player that they’ve definitely had talks over signing is Lee Kang-in at Paris Saint-Germain. This dates back to earlier in the summer – conversations asking about what the cost would be to extract him from PSG, where he was one of the bench players last season.
“He is one of the players in PSG’s squad they are happy to retain, but they are conscious that if the player receives an offer that is appealing and the financial terms of the transfer fee are correct, they would be ready to sell assuming they have enough time to buy a replacement.
“You can understand why Daniel Levy is interested in signing Lee, having allowed Son Heung-min to move to LAFC. That was a significant commercial loss in terms of interest they built up among Koreans.
“To have another star name Korean player in the squad, as a replacement immediately after Son left, makes sense. I understand the asking price is €50m, meaning he would be a cheaper option than either Akliouche or Savinho.
“I think it’s pretty clear that Tottenham will do something in this area of the field before the window concludes.”
Spurs are also preparing a new and improved bid for Como’s Nico Paz according to Gianluca Di Marzio.
They already had a €40m [£35] bid rejected for the 20-year-old, with the Serie A side wanting €70m [£61m] for their playmaker.
The report adds:
‘The Londoners want to move forward again for the class of 2003, with a higher offer than the one presented a couple of weeks ago. To be seen if we will approach the required figure, also remembering that the last word always belongs to Real Madrid who would have the opportunity to match the offer and secure Nico Paz’s performance.’