Como sporting director Carlalberto Ludi has shed light on how serious Tottenham’s interest in Nico Paz was and whether the attacking midfielder came close to leaving the club.
During the summer transfer window, it was reported that Spurs had a €40m (£34.6m) offer for Nico Paz rejected by Como.
Some sources even claimed that Tottenham were ready to pay €70m (£60.7m) for Paz as they were extremely keen on landing the Argentine international.
However, the 21-year-old stayed put at the Italian club, with Spurs completing a late deal for Xavi Simons from Leipzig instead.
Como director reveals Nico Paz did not come close to Tottenham
Some reports claimed that Real Madrid played a big role in preventing Spurs from signing Paz, as Los Blancos have a buy-back option on the midfielder.
However, Como sporting director Carlalberto Ludi has now revealed that Spurs never substantiated their interest in the Argentine with an official offer, while the player never wanted to leave the club.
When asked how close Paz came to joining Tottenham, Ludi told TuttoMercatoWeb: “Not much, because no official offer has arrived, and by official, I mean signed. We’ve always had the player on our side. What makes us really proud is that, despite the sirens, many players and the coach have chosen to stay with us.
“We didn’t have to apply any pressure, other than to keep the course straight, maintain balance, and continue explaining the project to them.”
Como director’s comments say a lot about Tottenham’s transfer strategy
Ludi’s decision to stress the word ‘signed’ offer suggests that Spurs did make verbal offers to Como, even though they might not have sent an official bid in.
That ties in with what we heard in the final week of the transfer window, with Tottenham making advances towards several attackers across Europe before seeing which deal they can get over the line.
In the end, the strategy worked as Spurs managed to hijack Chelsea’s move for Simons, and many Tottenham fans might not want to swap the Dutchman for Paz, even though the Como starlet appears to have an extremely bright future ahead of him.