Earlier this week, a story emerged in Italy claiming that Tottenham had set €40m aside to sign Napoli’s Allan in January after ‘probing the ground’.
There was also a weird claim that Joe Lewis was involved, which was never really explained, but the major hitch in Spurs’ plan was Aurelio de Laurentiis’ refusal to let one of his main assets go.
We explained this seemed like ‘an exercise in both talking Allan up and explaining how strong the Naples club are when it comes to transfers’, and we stand by that, as now the Brazilian midfielder’s agent has played down speculation surrounding a potential exit.
Relayed by TuttoMercatoWeb, the representative told Radio Marte: “He’s happy at Napoli and I haven’t received any calls. I don’t know if anyone has called Napoli, but I have a good relationship with the club and if anyone had, they would have told me.”
That means that even if Tottenham have the money at the ready, no move has been made yet.
Quite frankly, in today’s market, €40m seems extremely low for a player of Allan’s quality, and with Jorginho having left for over £51m in the summer, there was little chance of a tough negotiator like De Laurentiis accepting anything under that.
Come to think of it, Daniel Levy and the Napoli president in the same room certainly would be entertaining to watch.
