Following Tottenham’s rather disappointing exit from the Europa League at the hands of Dinamo Zagreb, José Mourinho will need to take a long, hard look at his squad.
Among the decisions needed to be made are what to do with Carlos Vinícius, who has primarily played in all competitions bar the Premier League, and would cost the club somewhere around €40m.
That’s a lot of money for a backup striker, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see him return to Benfica and Daniel Levy cast his eye elsewhere.
Among the potential targets at his disposal is Vedat Muriqi, whom Tottenham were reportedly after last summer.
Multiple claims from Turkey, when he still played for Fenerbahçe, explained Spurs were one of the Premier League clubs interested in the Kosovar, who has struggled in Italy ever since joining Lazio.
Bought for around €17.5m + bonuses, Muriqi wanted to go to Italy, as the newspaper reveal his old club ‘had a much better offer from England and it was only the player’s will that caused him to be sold’ to Lazio.
With that having failed, however, and the Serie A side wanting to cut their losses, ‘it cannot be ruled out that Muriqi will return to being a transfer man’ and ‘if adequate offers arrive from the Premier League’, then the club ‘would be available to take them into consideration’.
But why Tottenham? Because it’s explicitly stated that ‘the admirers of last summer have not stopped considering him good for that league’.
Spurs absolutely fall into that category, and with Vinícius potentially returning to Portugal, going back for Muriqi, potentially at a decent price, could be a good move as a backup for Harry Kane.
