The Daily Mirror have claimed that Tottenham Hotspur could try to sign Bournemouth centre-back Illia Zabarnyi in January, having admired the centre-back for a long time.
Zabarnyi, who made a £20m switch to Bournemouth back in January of this year, has emerged as a key player for Andoni Iraola’s men this season, with the youngster seemingly improving with each passing game.
The centre-back had been heavily linked with a move to Spurs in the summer of 2022 (Alasdair Gold – YouTube channel), around six months prior to his eventual switch to the Vitality Stadium.
Paratici is a fan of Spurs target Illia Zabarnyi
The Mirror have now confirmed that Spurs have been following Zabarnyi’s progress for the best part of two years.
The outlet says that the club’s former managing director of football, Fabio Paratici, who still works on a consultancy basis for the Lilywhites, is a big fan of the Ukrainian.
It is alleged that the 21-year-old is now one of the names on the North London club’s shortlist ahead of the January transfer window,
The publication asserts that Zabarnyi’s name remains prevalent throughout the data algorithms Tottenham’s recruitment staff have been using to track potential transfer targets, with the Cherries star said to boast of impressive numbers when it comes to passes, blocks and clearances.
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Given how well Zabarnyi has done for Bournemouth over the last few months, Tottenham will be ruing the fact that they did not take a punt on him 18 months ago. The South Coast club are likely to demand a fee of over £40m for the 21-year-old in next month’s transfer window.