Inter Milan’s Jeison Murillo is reportedly being targeted by Tottenham, who are interested in the player’s services.
It has been claimed that Tottenham actually refused the opportunity to sign the player last summer. Tuttomercatoweb (h/t HITC) says that Spurs sent scouts to watch the defender in action against Sampdoria on Monday, but unfortunately, Murillo did not feature in the lineup.
Murillo won the best young player award in Copa America 2015 tournament and is a highly-rated centre-half in Europe. Even Manchester United were linked with a £27 million move for the Colombian last summer, but signed Eric Bailly instead.
Tottenham were actually offered the chance to sign Murillo last summer by Inter Milan, with Football Italia reporting that the Nerazzurri tried to tempt Tottenham into a swap deal with Erik Lamela going the other way.
Spurs resisted the move, but Lamela’s season has been a write-off due to injury, recently undergoing surgery on a problem which has sidelined him since October.
With Lamela having missed almost an entire season now for Spurs, they can probably try and revive the deal again by offering the Argentine as a part of the swap deal to sign Murillo.
Tottenham have played with a three centre-back formation this season and Eric Dier has looked like a fish out of water playing at the back. The Englishman looks more at ease playing in central midfield than as a centre-half.
Hence, it actually makes sense for Tottenham to sign a centre-half. If they did, they would have 3 fit centre-halves playing in the three-man backline and a backup in Eric Dier who can fill in when needed.
The South American would not come for cheap and if Spurs feel the need to hold on to Erik Lamela, then they can even try and sign the defender using cash. This would be the final summer where they would have the financial resources to use on players. Once they move to the new stadium, their transfer activity might become restricted and hence Pochettino needs to make some long-term plans to execute this summer.
