At various points throughout the course of yesterday, several updates emerged regarding Tottenham Hotspur’s pursuit of AS Roma’s Nicolo Zaniolo (read those updates here).
One of those updates was that firstly, although Zaniolo had agreed to move to Spurs in the January transfer window and that his agent was intent on flying to London for further talks this week, the North Londoners were still short of Roma’s approximate £30 million valuation of the 23-year-old attacking midfielder.
Zaniolo’s and Roma’s manager, Jose Mourinho, then commented that, although his player had expressed his desire to leave the Stadio Olimpico this month, he could not see him leaving the Romans due to Spurs’ failure to meet Roma’s valuation of Zaniolo.
However, it now seems that Spurs and Roma are not as far in their respective valuations of Zaniolo as Mourinho thought. Indeed, 90 Min has reported today that both clubs are ‘in broad agreement’ that Zaniolo is worth around €30 million, and not £30 million as reported yesterday.
The only thing, according to the report, left to agree on now regarding the transfer is the structure of the deal. Spurs want Zaniolo on loan – that is not new news – something that Roma are themselves happy with, but only on the condition that there is an obligatory buying clause at the end of the loan.
However, Spurs would only agree to this in the event that they qualify for next season’s Champions League, and would rather the clause become optional in the event that they fail to qualify for Europe’s premier competition.
As it stands, Spurs do very much have a good chance of cracking the top four for consecutive seasons for the first time since 2019 under Mauricio Pochettino, but this deal looks closer to completion now that both clubs have agreed on the player’s overall valuation, irrespective of how Spurs’ fortunes impact the potential deal’s structure.
Have your say on Spurs’ Zaniolo pursuit on the Vital Spurs Fan Forum here.