Spurs emerge as favourites for World Cup finalist

Tottenham Hotspur’s links with familiar names are not going away, not least those with Juventus midfielder Adrien Rabiot.

Prior to today, my colleague Mitch reported our interest in the Frenchman a few weeks back – read that article here.

Indeed, Spurs’ interest in the 2018 World Cup winner and recent World Cup finalist in Qatar reportedly stretches as far back as 2018 under Mauricio Pochettino when Rabiot was at PSG, but the Frenchman turned us down due to his belief that we were not good enough then for player of his ilk.

Whether or not Rabiot feels that way now with a world-class manager in Antonio Conte remains to be seen, and it has been reported by several Italian outlets that Conte and Fabio Paratici are very keen on bringing the French midfielder to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Indeed, Tuttomercato Web has claimed that today that Spurs are in ‘pole position’ to sign Rabiot, with the Frenchman’s contract out in the summer and his entourage – i.e., his mother – struggling to agree terms for a new contract with Juventus.

As covered by me last month, Juventus’ financial crisis has incapacitated their negotiating position with current players and will therefore likely look to cash in on the likes of Rabiot rather than lose him for nothing in the summer.

This is the view taken by Cult of Calcio, who indicate that Spurs are likely to come in for Rabiot for January rather than wait for him as a free agent in the summer. The report states that the Frenchman’s fee is in the region of 15 to 20 million euros, with his cut-price valuation tempting Spurs into a January move.

However, as outlined in every report I’ve cited here, there is a host of clubs interested in Rabiot’s services, not least Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United, so Spurs do not have a clear run at his signature – that’s even if we choose to follow up our interest with a concrete offer. We shall see what happens…