Mauricio Pochettino recently admitted that the club are in need of some strengthening in the January transfer window if they are to revive the season. The statements from the manager came after the 2-1 loss against Monaco in the champions league. The result means that Tottenham will not be involved in the knockout stages of the Champions League, while they face a struggle with CSKA Moscow to even qualify for the knockout stages of the Europa League.
Spurs have already been linked with several players over the last few weeks. One of the transfer targets from the summer, Yunus Malli, seems to have come back on the club’s agenda. The Turkish international was seen as a cheaper alternative to Georginio Wijnaldum. Spurs were interested in the former Newcastle United midfielder, who joined Liverpool in the summer for around £25 million. Malli would cost in the region of £8 million, while also being quite happy with the role of a squad player.
These attributes would perfectly suit Tottenham, and the club seem to have revealed their interest. Malli’s agent has claimed that there is once again interest in the transfer market and that his client could be on the move in January.
The 24-year-old plays for Mainz 05 in the Bundesliga and he has been with the German outfit for the majority of his career. After having come through the ranks at Borussia Monchengladbach, Yunus Malli joined Mainz in 2011 and has gone on to make more than 135 appearances for the team. This season, he has been a revelation after managing to score six goals in 11 league appearances. There are also four assists to his name from these matches, thus effectively meaning a return of almost one goal per game.
It is a vast improvement over last season when he scored 11 goals throughout the campaign in all competitions. His improved form has certainly not gone unnoticed, as Spurs are once again revisiting the possibility of signing him.
The Premier League outfit will be especially attracted by the fact that Yunus Malli only has a contract until the summer of 2018. He is yet to sign a new deal with Mainz, thus leaving him with the possibility of leaving on a cheap in the summer. Mainz would rather sell him in January or in the summer rather than lose him for nothing in the summer of 2018 if the present contract stand-off continues.
His agent expects transfer movement to certainly start, but he does not see the client moving in the first few weeks of January. Speaking to Bild, the player’s uncle and agent Ilhan Malli said:
“We work well with Mainz. If interesting offers come, we’ll get together.
“A bit of movement is already on the market. But this is probably only going to start at the beginning of January.”
