During the summer transfer window, it was said that Tottenham were taking an interest in Ruslan Malinovskyi, and the player favoured a move to London.
The playmaker ended up staying at Atalanta, where he failed to get much game time under Gian Piero Gasperini, and that led to the rumours of a move in January to start up again.
Tottenham were among those said to be interested, but it was eventually Marseille who decided to pull the trigger, signing the player on loan with an option to buy that becomes compulsory if certain conditions are met.
That put an end to the stories involving Spurs, as he seemingly decided against waiting to see if Conte would come forward, although that hasn’t stopped some to still talk about the Premier League side.
One of those was Yevgen Levchenko, who was asked about Malinovskyi’s move to Marseille, which is when he brought up Tottenham.
He said, relayed by Tribuna: “I don’t think that being 30 years old, this is a step backwards. When you are 30 years old, you think carefully about all the options. If Malinovskyi moved to England, to Tottenham? I don’t think he would have played there.
“Marseille is also a volcano. If you don’t play with your heart, and with fire in your eyes, the fans will kick you out. Look at the squad, at the coaches that the fans kicked out. In this club, you need to work 100%. Marseille are a great team that can play in the Champions League. Tudor knows him. If they believe in him, then he will be able to play at the best level.”
Even though he has only been transferred recently, Malinovskyi has already been included in the squad for Marseille’s next game, against Troyes.
