Spurs’ interest in a new centre-back has been long documented, and given that Antonio Conte’s system deploys three of them, it makes sense that the Lilywhites would be interested in another body in that department.
Indeed, Marco Conterio of Italian outlet TuttoMercatoWeb earlier this week that Antonio Conte has made a “request” to Tottenham’s board for Bayer Leverkusen’s Ecuadorian centre-back Piero Hincapie in order to “reinforce Tottenham’s defence”.
Indeed, it is widely believed that the 20-year-old left-footed Ecuadorian international is admired by Fabio Paratici as well as Conte, with Fabrizio Romano confirming that Paratici has been watching the player closely since his time at Juventus:
“Hincapie is appreciated by Tottenham, let me say that Paratici already knew this player when he was at Juventus. He was really young and playing in South America. So Paratici knows the player really well for some time”, said Romano (quotes relayed via The Boot Room today).
However, Romano continued in stating that despite Spurs’ interest, Leverkusen are not particularly enamoured with losing one of their key players midway through the season, so this is not an easy transfer for Spurs to complete:
“Hincapie is appreciated, it’s true, but Bayer Leverkusen want to keep all their players until the end of the season, so it’s not going to be easy.”
This is hardly surprising, as this is the standard stance most clubs with a sane boardroom undertake in the winter transfer window. Nevertheless, Romano concluded his little spiel on Hincapie by offering hope to Spurs, highlighting their positive relationship with the Ecuadorian’s agent:
“I’m told that Tottenham have a very good relationship with the agents of the player, so let’s see if they decide to act.”
Have your say on Spurs’ interest in Hincapie or other Spurs-related matters in the Vital Spurs fan forum here: https://forums.vitalfootball.co.uk/forums/to-dare-is-to-do.27.