Tottenham are reportedly among a number of Premier League clubs who are interested in signing Roma goalkeeper Pau Lopez this summer.
Lopez spent the 2016-17 season on loan with us but never played a first-team game as he took up third choice behind Hugo Lloris and Michel Vorm.
According to talkSPORT, we could have made the move permanent for £6m but lost out on the Spaniard while trying to negotiate a lower transfer fee.
Now 25 and a full Spain international, Lopez has built the start of a good career for himself as No.1 as Espanyol, Real Betis and, currently, Roma.
However after one season in Italy, Estadio Deportivo, relayed by Football Italia, report he could be put up for sale at £36m to help Roma raise funds.
We’ve been named as a potential suitor for the man we should’ve signed three years ago, who’d now be in a position to succeed a declining Lloris, while Chelsea and West Ham are also said to be interested in Lopez.
In the current climate and with other positions a priority, I can’t see us signing a goalkeeper this summer. Then again, if we hadn’t made a poor call on Pau – potentially a £30m mistake – we probably wouldn’t need to.
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There have been a few failures that haven’t made any sense at the time and this was one of them. Levy really is a piss poor negotiator.
The transfer bungle on Pau Lopes, whilst historical, is regrettably less than historic when set against the unbelievable catalogue of incoming transfer blunders overseen by one D. Levy. The list of player acquisition failures is just an unforgivable catalogue of error upon error, punctuated by the occasional resounding success.
Pau Lopes was yet another nailed on transfer, blown by Levy, due to changing the goalposts on agreed upon terms and conditions at the last minute and trying to screw the selling club into parting with a genuine asset for a pitifully insulting fee. This mirrored similar blown deals for Ryan Sessegnon, Mousa Dembele and Jack Grealish, amongst others, where a fee had been agreed only for Levy to try and renege on the agreement.
Once one gets into the broader catalogue of transfer blunders, it’s like a comedy of errors. Eden Hazard, Willian, Moutinho, Aubameyang, Luis Suarez, Jadon Sancho, Harry Maguire, Ross Barkley, et al and more recently, Bruno Fernandes/Paolo Dybala. Admittedly, not every one of those blown deals was Levy’s fault, but it is a trail of incompetence and ineptitude which takes some beating.
Said at the time it was a mistake not to sign him.
Gk surely not a priority position. We have a limited budget so we should spend on our weakest areas. Hugo can cut it for another season or two in my opinion.