With Christian Eriksen leaving Tottenham in January, Jose Mourinho will be on the hunt for a replacement this summer.
We’ve been linked with Barcelona’s Philippe Coutinho, Juventus’ Aaron Ramsey, Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitic, Ajax’s Donny van de Beek and Real Madrid’s James Rodriguez among others, but AS Roma’s Nicolò Zaniolo is also on our radar.
Transfer expert Nicolo Schira said in July that Tottenham were ‘ready to offer €50m’ to Roma for the 21-year-old, but it’s hard to see a deal materialising for myriad reasons.
How good is Zaniolo?
He’s rated highly. The Italian international has made 69 appearances in all competitions for Roma, scoring 14 goals with six assists, so he’s contributing a goal every 213 minutes on average. Zaniolo has also netted twice in five games for his country, so he’s making an impression on all fronts.
Last season, the 21-year-old had a hand in eight goals from 16 Serie A starts, creating 24 chances, completing 82.1% of 407 passes, making 56/89 successful dribbles, having 46 shots with 46% hitting the target, blocking 14 passes, winning 43 free-kicks and making 15 tackles.
Why won’t we sign him?
The cost. Schira said Roma are requesting €60m-€70m for Zaniolo which would make him a club-record signing. Our revenue has taken a big hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so it’s hard to see us churning out so much money for one player.
We’re having to sell existing players to generate funds towards new recruits – Danny Rose, Serge Aurier, Juan Foyth, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Moussa Sissoko – so there’s little chance that Daniel Levy would sanction an expensive marquee signing rather than ensure we can strengthen the problem areas first – right-back, centre-back, centre-midfield, winger, striker.
Summary
Zaniolo would be a good signing who’d improve the squad, but he’s far too pricey to be on our radar. There’s no guarantee he’d even be open to a move to Tottenham either, as we didn’t set the place alight in 2019/20. Replacing Christian Eriksen is important, but we can’t throw a lot of money around this summer. Zaniolo may not be the right target for us.
In other news, Tottenham are on the hunt for a €10m defender as replacement for Danny Rose