Duncan Castles has claimed Sevilla were on the verge of selling Bryan Gil to a Serie A side for just £5 million before Tottenham swooped in to secure a deal.
Tottenham signed Gil for around £25 million last summer in a move that saw Erik Lamela move in the opposite direction (BBC Sport).
But the 20-year-old has struggled since making the move to the Premier League and has been limited to appearances from the bench.
As such, Gil was part of a Spurs exodus on deadline day, sealing a move back to La Liga to spend the rest of the season on loan with Valencia.
Spurs have reiterated that the Spain international has a future at the club (Football.London) despite his early struggles, and they will be hoping that is true considering they may have overpaid for his signature, according to Castles.
The journalist has claimed Sevilla were close to offloading Gil to an Italian club until Spurs managing director Fabio Paratici came in with an offer.
Castles told The Transfer Window Podcast: “I’m told that Gil was about to be sold by Sevilla to a Serie A club for around €6 million (£5m). Then Paratici contacted their sports director, Monchi, asking them how much they would want for Gil.
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“And Monchi, who is a very accomplished, experienced transfer market operator’s reply was not for less than €20 million (£16.8m) will we sell him.
“Tottenham then made an offer which Monchi bargained up to €25 million (£21.1m) plus Erik Lamela. Half a season later they’re loaning him back to Spain.”
Spurs Web Opinion
It seems difficult to believe that Sevilla were close to offloading a player of Gil’s talent for a fee so minimal. It is also too early to tell if Spurs have overpaid for him given he is still so young and has bags of room to grow into a star.
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