One of the stories currently making the rounds in the Spanish newspapers is that of Valencia’s interest in Harry Winks.
The midfielder, hardly used by José Mourinho in London, wants to get some guaranteed minutes somewhere, which Javi Gracia, the manager at the Mestalla, is willing to give him.
A loan would be the ideal move, since that’s all Peter Lim, the owner, is willing to go for, but Daniel Levy’s insistence in getting money for the temporary deal is proving problematic.
Two outlets have updates on Tuesday, and we’ll start with AS.
The national newspaper explains Gracia is looking to ‘raise the competitive level of the squad’ but ‘that ideal of reinforcement clashes with the economic reality of the club’.
Harry Winks falls into that category, but the reasons above means ‘it is difficult to reach an agreement with Tottenham, who ask for an economic amount for the deal that, together with his wages, leads to an operation being unviable’.
While Valencia would be prepared to spend money ‘within the margin left by Kondogbia’ in desperate times, that cannot happen with the Spurs midfielder ‘since his salary already consumes said margin’.
This is all echoed by Super Deporte, who state Winks ‘fits perfectly’ when it comes to what Gracia wants, but Tottenham’s desire for compensation means the Spaniard are ‘working on other options’.
Already relying on youngsters out of necessity, the manager is prepared to continue with this trajectory should the January transfer market prove fruitless.
Valencia have around €4m left from the Kondogbia deal, according to the local outlet, which isn’t a lot for the time of player they are looking at.
So unless Levy suddenly becomes generous, this might drag on for a while yet.
