The Athletic’s Charlie Eccleshare believes Tanguy Ndombele would have to be loaned out rather than sold by Tottenham this summer due to the Frenchman’s big salary.
Ndombele, along with Giovani Lo Celso, Sergio Reguilon and Harry Winks, have played no part in Antonio Conte’s plans since the start of pre-season, and an exit looks likely for all four players this summer.
However, Ndombele might be the most difficult one to shift out of the four, given that he is Tottenham’s joint highest earner along with Harry Kane (Spotrac).
Foot Mercato reported last week that Marseille are ‘very interested’ in the Spurs midfielder and have already contacted his representatives regarding a potential transfer.
The report claimed Napoli, AC Milan, Villarreal and Bayer Leverkusen also have their eyes on the former Lyon man but added that none of those clubs have made concrete advances yet.
Eccleshare believes that no matter where Ndombele ends up this summer, it would have to be a temporary move rather than a permanent one due to the impacts of COVID-19.
The journalist told GiveMeSport regarding the French international: “I think it’s going to be a loan. I can’t see anyone paying a fee or certainly not a significant fee. He’s on big wages, so even that is a stretch for a lot of teams.
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“The conversations I have with people who work in football recruitment and that sort of thing, what they always stress is that we underestimate how badly the Spanish league, French league, Italian league have been hit by Covid compared to the Premier League, which is insulated, to an extent, by the huge TV deal.
“So it’s very hard to get teams to pay the kind of wages that someone like Ndombele is on.”
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It certainly feels like Tottenham may have underestimated how difficult it would be to get transfer fees from Spanish or Italian clubs for some of their deadwood this summer.
While Ndombele’s wages make him a unique case, the club also might have issues shifting the likes of Lo Celso, Reguilon, Emerson and Tanganga.
In fact, I would not be surprised if Spurs accept a loan with an obligation to buy in most of the aforementioned cases.
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