On and off all throughout the early stages of the summer transfer window, talk about Tottenham making a move for Nicolo Zaniolo has heated up again over the past few days.
Franco Baldini’s recent meetings with his former club have a lot to do with that, and it’s now a general consensus that the 20-year-old’s future has been brought up during talks.
How feasible that deal is, however, remains to be seen.
Gazzetta dello Sport have their slant on the matter on Monday, explaining Tottenham are ‘very interested’ and have already offered the player a ‘multi-million’ deal, which is a clear upgrade on his €300k/year contract in Rome.
However, the Serie A side value their starlet at €50m, which Spurs won’t pay unless they somehow offload Christian Eriksen, but that’s something Mauricio Pochettino would like to avoid.
There’s a brief mention about Moussa Sissoko being potentially inserted in the deal to lower the cash need, but that’s dismissed as rumour chatter.
The inclusion of the Frenchman is brought up in Corriere dello Sport as well, who state it will be discussed in Monday’s meeting between Baldini and Spurs, yet there’s once again little detail to back it up.
Juventus’ interest is also discussed in detail, with the emphasis a move to Turin would be Zaniolo’s preference, as Fabio Paratici has urged the player’s agent to not send his client to London, as they could take him by the end of the transfer window and then delay the transfer until 2020.
This would allow Roma to have the youngster for an extra year, all the while giving the Serie A champions a chance to delay the payment.
Realistically, unless something quite impressive takes place in Monday’s meeting, Juventus do appear to have the upper hand when it comes to the 20-year-old, especially as it’s once again reiterated Pochettino hasn’t ‘especially highlighted’ the midfielder as the kind of player he wants for his team.
