In the last summer transfer window, Spanish newspaper AS claimed Tottenham had offered €25m for Mateo Kovacic. That was in July and an exit from Real Madrid seemed a possibility.
Dani Ceballos, signing from Real Betis, and Marcos Llorente, returning on loan from Alaves, were seen as direct threats to Kovacic’s game time at Madrid. However, the Tottenham offer was said to have been refused, and AS suggested they’d have more luck if they returned with €35m.
The following month, and after some good performances from Kovacic, the same newspaper reported a €75m offer from Juventus had been refused. That was very hard to believe, but it did underline what a good job the midfielder was doing.
Since then things haven’t gone so well. With just 172 La Liga minutes and 83 in the Champions League, Kovacic hasn’t been used as much as he’d like. There’s been an injury which kept the Croatian out for two months, but that certainly doesn’t account for the lack of usage.
Juventus links have popped up again recently, but today Calciomercato talk those down. With Juve very confident of adding Emre Can to their squad in the summer, and looking at some young Italian additions to add to the Liverpool player, Kovacic isn’t a priority.
This all presents an opportunity for Tottenham to have another go. If they were interested enough to offer €25m, and if that offer was correct, then the desire is likely to remain on some level.
Real Madrid have been widely tipped to go Galactico crazy in the summer, and an extra €25m spending money could help. One for Mauricio Pochettino to ponder.
