The Sun reports Tottenham are now frontrunners, ahead of Chelsea and Manchester United, to sign Celtic striker Moussa Dembele.
The 20-year-old has scored 32 goals in all competitions for the Scottish champions since joining the SPL side last summer.
Spurs almost signed Dembele in January 2016 when he played for Fulham, but couldn’t agree terms as the player was not willing to rejoin the Championship club on loan at the time.
Chelsea were thought to be extremely interested in signing Dembele towards the end of this season’s January transfer window, but a move didn’t materialise.
Now, according to The Sun’s ‘source’ — really, that could be anyone — a deal between Celtic and Tottenham “looks to set for this summer.”
Spurs are desperate for competition, or even suitable back-up, for striker Harry Kane, and Dembele would provide just that.
The Frenchman also fits the criteria Maurico Pochettino is believed to be keen on when it comes to recruitment — he’s young and talented with big potential to develop.
Any deal for Dembele will likely depend on Vincent Janssen’s future. If the Dutchman leaves White Hart Lane this summer, there will be a place in the squad to fill for a new striker.
Dembele has already said he won’t be leaving next season. Celtic don’t have to sell, and the player doesnt want to leave. That makes it very much a sellers market, which means very expensive, even for an EPL club.
If you want to believe rumours, then Chelsea tried to tap him up in January and he knocked back 60k a week.
Can spurs beat that on top of the crazy transfer fee?
We could have got him from Fulham for much cheaper but then we insisted on loaning him back, which wasn’t what he wanted. Looks like we’ll miss out on another player we weren’t prepared to take a gamble on. Would he have been a better option than Janssen? Who knows? In playing style and work rate, Janssen is more similar to Kane, so we probably thought he might have been the better cover. One thing for sure, AZ in the Eredivisie, Fulham in the Championship and Celtic in the Scottish Premier League are not quite the same thing as Tottenham in the EPL.