Tottenham Hotspur wants to improve their midfield, and with only a few hours left until the January transfer window closes, the north London club hopes to secure a deal to improve the position.
According to transfer window specialist Fabrizio Romano, Tottenham has presented their official offer for Juventus midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur around €19-million plus €6-million add ons.
Discussions are in progress with Juventus to reach the agreement before the window closes on Monday. The Serie A club reportedly wants £21-million upfront since they’ll have to give 30-percent of the sale to Argentine club Boca Juniors.
As a result, Tottenham’s offer falls short of what the Italian club wants. Presenting bids short of what a club wants has been the story of this January window as Tottenham failed to meet Wolverhampton Wanderers’ asking price of £25-million for Adama Traore.
Wolves agreed to a loan deal with a £29.1-million attached to it, per The Athletic, and Spurs could lose out on Bentacur if they don’t pay what Juventus wants.
Furthermore, Aston Villa is also in the run for the midfielder, so if they meet the asking price, Tottenham could lose out on another player.
Conte seems to prefer a bank of defensive leaning mids in front of the back 3 rather than having a playmaker in the accepted sense. Being a South American I’d be very surprised if he wasn’t technically better than Winks. Many Juventus enthusiasts say he’s their best ball winner and a decent passer. He’s going to be a lot better in the air than Winks, Skip or PEH. But we’re all excited and time will tell!
I dunno, just read a different article (Cartilage Free Captain) that suggests he is very defensive, so maybe he’s just squad fodder so Hoj doesn’t have to play every game, I mean Conte clearly doesn’t fancy Skipp and Winks as the partnership so this also makes sense.
I guess we’ll see, but my point remains, he’s not a child, he has good experience and you’d like to think that Conte and Paratici know him well enough to vouch for his attitude.
Nobody’s gonna be popping champagne corks, but could possibly be seen as progress in terms of balancing the squad for Conte’s tactical requirements.
Definitely an upgrade on Winks. Much better technical ability and more consistent.
I’m not sure Paratichi is at fault here… its Levy who decides purse strings… I suspect Paratichi has had more issues with transfers since his appointment than his entire time spent with Juventus
No, it’s 3m higher.
I read somewhere he played a signifiant role in Juve’s title winning campaigns for a couple of years but maybe gone off the boil a bit, or more likely just struggling due to the competition for his place. I don’t know, but I also read he’s not a “natural” defensive mid, so hopefully he’s a bit more box-to-box.
He’s probably an upgrade on Winks, so assuming that virtually none of us are experts on the qualities of the lad, I think we need to keep an open mind and see what he’s about.
He’s a 24 year old Uruguayan international with nearly 50 caps and a couple of Scudetto’s in his pocket, so he is not a “prospect” nor is he coming to sit on the bench… let’s not be too downbeat about it just yet!
Reviews of these two players are mixed. I keep hearing words like potential, promising, Conte can develop them.
We need players ready to play now, not in three months, six months, next season or two years from now.
We seem to have hit the panic button or should I say Paratici has by the looks of it, how can the only possible targets that he can muster are two from his previous club, I know he may have limits on budget but c’mon man.
I’m not absolutely sure but isn’t our bid lower than Villa’s which got knocked back?