Tottenham Hotspur have been handed a blow in their pursuit for Dani Ceballos.
According to a report by Marca, the Real Madrid midfielder is thought to be determined to stay and fight for his place in Zinedine Zidane’s side.
Ceballos said: “I am very ambitious as I have four more years at Madrid and a high [release] clause, and my goal is to succeed at Real Madrid and I think I’m going to do so.
“Zidane has always been clear to me and he has never sold me a pup.
“I am not going to tell you what he has told me because it is private, but he has been very clear in both of his spells.”
El Desmarque had linked us with a move for the Real Madrid midfielder last month, but it seems that a move to Spurs is not going to happen and we can only consider it to be a blow for us this summer.
A versatile midfielder, Ceballos can be rather reliable in the deeper areas of the field with his defensive capabilities as he is a strong tackler, whilst he can also be utilised further forward as a modern-day box-to-box midfielder.
Creativity is something we could also do with adding to our ranks this summer, and the 22-year-old, who is valued at £18million by Transfermarkt, would have been someone that would have added an extra dimension to Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
He has an exceptional passing ability when playing the ball to his team-mates, whilst his finishing has started to improve as he plays more regularly. He is comfortable on the ball as the Spaniard likes to dribble with it at his feet, and he can be quite safe in possession.
A number of other targets have been mentioned this summer that should help to ease any blow potentially missing out on Ceballos would bring – so maybe it will not all be bad this summer for us.