After Spurs’ dramatic – and for many, unexpected – signing of Villareal winger Arnaut Danjuma (read about the signing here and the player here), it has been generally expected that the club’s lengthy pursuit of Roma’s Nicolo Zaniolo would now subside.
Up until the Danjuma hijacking from Everton’s noses, Spurs and Roma had been engaged in intense dialogue vis-a-vis a move that would see Zaniolo join Antonio Conte’s side. Spurs reportedly had an offer rejected, but it was expected that Spurs would meet Roma’s asking price for the 23-year-old, and that the player’s agent would even jet in to London to thrash out a deal between all parties (read about that here).
However, since then Bournemouth have swooped in to the picture, and with Danjuma on board, it seems unlikely that the deal for Zaniolo is a goer.
Indeed, Sky Sport’s resident Daniel Levy tribute act, Darmesh Sheth, was quoted on the website’s transfer blog (see entry at 17:29) as stating that while Bournemouth have met Roma’s asking price for Zaniolo (£26.5 million), the Cherries are not optimistic at getting a deal done for him just yet due to the expectation that the attacker will hold out for a side competing in Europe:
“Bournemouth are showing a bit of ambition in this window. The subject of Roma’s Nicolo Zaniolo – who also has Spurs interest – has came up. They like the player, but Bournemouth think he would ideally like to move to a club where European football is an option”, reported Sheth.
“Bournemouth would match what Roma would want in a sale – that’s around £26.5m.”
Now Bournmeouth’s expectations are reasonable – if the player indeed wants European football, then the deal seems dependent on whether Spurs would want to pursue another attacker on top of the recently-arrived Danjuma.
Even though both are completely different players, it is doubtful whether Spurs feel as though they have satisfied their needs in the attacking department for now, with other areas of the field – i.e., the back-line – needing attention.
If Spurs are merely satisfied with Danjuma, Bournemouth would obviously have a clear run at the chap, but I would not be averse to seeing us bring him in if we can find takers for Lucas Moura and Bryan Gil.
We need depth, and quality depth too, and we need it now. Zaniolo and Danjuma are clear upgrades on Moura and Gil – either way, we’ll see what happens.
In the meantime, have your say on the Zaniolo saga or any other Spurs-related matters on the Vital Spurs fan forum here.