Tottenham are in pole position to sign Barcelona star Rafinha after Inter Milan decided not to sign the midfielder permanently, according to reports in Italy.
Earlier this month, reports emerged suggesting Spurs are interested in signing Rafinha this summer.
The 25-year-old, who is the brother of Bayern Munich midfielder Thiago Alcantara, spent the second half of the 2017/18 season on loan at Inter Milan, who reportedly have an option to sign him permanently for €35 million (£30.8m).
However, it is believed Inter have not taken up the option to buy.
During his short time at Inter, Rafinha made 16 appearances and scored two goals as the Italian giants qualified for next season’s Champions League.
And according to FCInterNews, Tottenham are now in pole position to sign the Brazil international.
However, Spurs will apparently face competition from West Ham United, who are likely to be able to offer Rafinha guaranteed first-team football.
The Brazilian can play in central midfield and further forward, a degree of versatility Mauricio Pochettino will surely appreciate.
With that in mind, he’d be the ideal replacement for Mousa Dembele – the Belgian is expected to leave Tottenham in the comings weeks.
Rafinha couldn’t lace Dembeles boots. Cant believe how everyone just casually accepts dembeles departure and forgets how defensively awful we are without him, his positional intelligence is key to us being able to play 2 central defenders, whilst letting the fullbacks bomb forward, whilst his 90% pass accuracy and ball domination cannot be matched by anyone in the league over the last 6 seasons when hes played. When we’ve had dembele fit we’ve feared no-one, unlike before he arrived and during the spells where he wasn’t playing. To just think a player like Dembele is easily replaceable is silly, but to think someone like Rafinha could get close to doing the job is laughable.
Er I thought that was Dier or wanyama’s job.
Great player but if he doesn’t want to be there then we have to get what we can for him it’s ruthless. Dembele’s one of my favourite players but can be replaced with someone like Shelby who has a bit more of an appetite for goals .
If you look at some of the goals we concede it’s normally Dembele jogging behind the runner who goes on to score.
I think he can be lazy at times.
I love Dembele but only when he’s going past people and driving forward. I think we could potentially buy a better player if we spend right.
Not Grealish!
Wanyama for me is a solid defensive minded midfielder. But we must look at a real top player. A winner of mid to late 20s in age and someone who scores goals!