Journalist Dean Jones has revealed that Tottenham failed with their pursuit of Ruslan Malinovskyi in the summer transfer window as Atalanta adopted a stubborn stance in the final few days of the market.
Despite being heavily linked with a move to Spurs in the final month of the summer transfer window (TuttoMercatoWeb), Malinovskyi ended up staying put at Atalanta.
Fabrizio Romano revealed in the days following the end of the transfer window that both Tottenham and Marseille wanted to sign the attacking midfielder on loan with an option to buy but Atalanta president Antonio Percassi prevented the player from leaving.
The journalist added that the 29-year-old’s future ‘remains open for next year’.
This has now been backed up by Jones, who claimed that Spurs ‘gave up on the idea’ of signing Malinovskyi owing to Atalanta’s hard stance.
The journalist added that the Ukrainian international’s situation is “one to keep an eye on” during the January transfer window.
Jones told GiveMeSport regarding Tottenham’s pursuit of Malinovskyi: “Atalanta became quite stubborn over this one.
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“Spurs had been looking into a loan deal for this, but they gave up on the idea because Atalanta just weren’t doing it and it clearly wasn’t going to happen.
“But that situation could easily change so it’s one to keep an eye on for January.”
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One would expect both Bryan Gil and Pape Sarr to be loaned out in January. So, Spurs are likely to be in the market for reinforcements. Malinovskyi would be an ideal fit since he will be able to cover multiple positions.
The fact that he will only have six months to run on his contract in January (unless he signed a new deal at Atalanta) will likely make it a fairly easy deal to pull off. However, it is unclear whether Spurs only explored the option of signing the Ukrainian on loan or if a permanent deal would interest the North London club.
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