Alasdair Gold has revealed that Tottenham are playing down links to Nicolo Zaniolo and are currently concentrating on offloading players deemed surplus to requirements.
Over recent days, reports from both Italy and England have suggested that Spurs might not be able to sign Zaniolo this summer.
Corriere dello Sport claimed on Wednesday that Jose Mourinho had blocked the winger from moving to Tottenham and that the former Spurs boss convinced the 23-year-old to stay at the Serie A club for one more season.
This was subsequently followed up by a report in The Evening Standard yesterday suggesting that while the Giallorossi had initially offered Zaniolo to Spurs, the Italian club had changed their mind and decided to hang on to the player.
Gold has now explained that Tottenham’s main focus for the moment is on selling the players who are surplus to requirements.
The journalist also questioned why loaning the winger to Antonio Conte’s men would appeal to Roma, unless there was a permanent transfer clause included.
When asked in a Q&A on Football.London if he knows anything about Roma refusing to sell Zaniolo to Tottenham, Gold responded: “I can only tell you what’s happening from the Spurs’ side of things and they are playing down any links to Nicolo Zaniolo right now.
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“That certainly doesn’t mean they’re not interested. Far from it. I know he’s been a player of interest for a number of years for Spurs.
“I think they’re just so focused right now on trying to move players out of the door as a priority, mainly because of those foreign player limits. They’re four over in their Champions League squad and on the limit of 17 in the Premier League squad.
“Of course, they could just leave players out if they want to sign more but that’s a costly thing to do. They need to sell rather than paying millions in total for unused players.
“When it comes to Zaniolo, I can’t see why Roma would want to loan him out with very little relative financial recompense, which leaves a permanent transfer and that would surely only come about through contract or injury concerns from their side. For Spurs, a loan first makes more sense after those injury woes of recent years.
“He’s a starter every week for them but for Spurs he would be in the mix in their now stronger than ever squad. It’s certainly an interesting one and it might be a situation we know more about definitively as the window winds towards its conclusion.”
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I do not think Conte or Paratici had identified Zaniolo as a key target ahead of the summer. I believe it was more of a case of the opportunity suddenly opening up and Spurs viewing it as too good to pass up on.
So, I don’t think it will come as a major blow to the Tottenham hierarchy if we do miss out on Zaniolo. While the priority for the moment is to move players on, I expect us to make one more attacking addition before the transfer window closes.
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