Tottenham Hotspur in a straight battle with Manchester United for West Brom star Sam Johnstone
According to Rob Dorsett of Sky Sports on Twitter (h/t The Sun), Tottenham Hotspur are engaged in a straight battle with Manchester United for the signature of West Brom star Sam Johnstone. He seems in line to depart The Hawthorns in the summer transfer window amidst interests from the Premier League.
Johnstone is currently in the final year of his contract with West Bromwich Albion, and it appears that an extension is not on the cards. They have accepted that he will leave them on a free transfer at the end of this season. Tottenham and Man United have already expressed their interest in securing his services this summer.
Now, it is stated that the Premier League duo are the only interested parties left in this transfer race. That means West Ham United and Southampton have dropped out of the pursuit to sign the Englishman. His final decision could depend upon Champions League football, which means that Spurs could potentially be in the lead right now.
What a transfer boost!
The 29-year-old’s eagerness to play in the English top-flight has certainly lent us a hand when it comes to our transfer business. After all, we would need to bring in reinforcements in the goalkeeping department when Pierluigi Gollini eventually returns to Atalanta.
Gollini had joined us at the start of this season on a one-year loan deal, which also includes an option to make the temporary move permanent for £12.9million in transfer fees. We need to be efficient with our transfer planning from here on out, as the squad needs to be bolstered in several areas of the pitch.
That would undoubtedly be expensive, which means that we need to reduce costs wherever possible. Signing Johnstone on a free is a much better prospect than letting Gollini stay in such a case, plus the former is quite able to play as a backup for Hugo Lloris.
Who knows, maybe Johnstone could even take over the starting spot from Lloris in the years to come, as the latter does not have many years left in his playing career. However, the Championship star would need to continuously impress for that to be the case as he has done in the past.
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The Baggies ace has 15 clean sheets to his name from 36 matches this season and has only conceded 33 goals across all competitions as well. He would be a solid option to bolster our shot-stopper role, but we would need to overcome the challenge that awaits us from the Red Devils.
However, Ralf Rangnick’s side has fallen off the pursuit to get into the top four places in the league table. They are trailing us by six points right now, and should the current situation continue, we would qualify for the CL next term. That could give us the edge in this transfer race, but only time will tell whether that is the case or not.
