Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton sent scouts to the game between Lille and Toulouse on Tuesday night. The two Premier League sides made frequent trips to France last season, and Tottenham were seen at Lille several times with the target then thought to be Sofiane Boufal… who signed for Southampton.
The two sides were joined by other Premier League clubs including Leicester City and Arsenal. Championship side Aston Villa also sent representatives as they continue to recruit from France.
There have been no reports who any of the clubs were watching on Tuesday night, and now that Boufal has joined Southampton there must be fresh targets.
This isn’t the first time Tottenham and Southampton have been linked with the same player, Pochettino took Southampton’s France scout to Tottenham and since then the clubs have repeatedly been linked with the same players.
Drissa Diallo used to be Southampton’s France scout, but moved to Tottenham with Pochettino. The south coast club responded by hiring two permanent scouts in France, and since then the two clubs have been linked with moves for the same player several times.
In the cases of Sofiane Boufal and Clinton N’Jie, the interest has led to actual transfers. Southampton were also linked with Georges-Kevin N’Koudou, but that was because they had a scout watch Lille against Marseille, with the actual target likelier to have been Boufal.
We’ll call that 1-1 then?
