On Monday, a few more articles appeared suggesting that Tottenham were still very keen on signing Nicolò Zaniolo.
The forward has long been a target for Spurs, and while there have been previous attempts, this year feels like it could be the right one.
After all, Antonio Conte is in charge at Tottenham, making the club an attractive destination for Italian players, and they have Champions League football on offer to boot.
However, because they have already spent a fair bit of money this summer, their initial offerings to AS Roma haven’t been the most enticing for a club wanting money in their bank account straight away.
Gazzetta dello Sport have an article on the matter on Tuesday, explaining that now that Juventus have moved on from Zaniolo, ‘the real temptation’ for him is Tottenham.
It’s pointed out Spurs have ‘been thinking strongly’ of the player ‘for a few days’, but what they want to put forward ‘doesn’t satisfy’ Roma.
As things stand, they only want to take him on loan ‘with an obligation to buy that could go up to more than €40m’, but that would only be triggered in ‘some situations deemed unsuitable’ by the Serie A side.
Those include Tottenham qualifying for next year’s Champions League ‘or the fact that Nicolo has to play at least 50% of the games as a starter’.
Considering he would face competition from Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski, that could be difficult.
Furthermore, Roma, to accept a loan, would like ‘perhaps €10m’ up front, and Tottenham ‘are not willing to satisfy the requests of Roma, who in any case continue to value their jewel at €60m’.
Basically, ‘there is a distance between demand and offer’, meaning the next few days could be interesting in terms of negotiations.
