Transfer News: Tottenham continue ‘heated’ battle with Chelsea for RB Leipzig defender Josko Gvardiol
According to Italian outlet Calciomercato (h/t Express), Tottenham Hotspur are continuing their ‘heated’ transfer battle with Chelsea to sign RB Leipzig centre-back Josko Gvardiol.
The 20-year-old defender has had a brilliant debut season in Germany where he barely made Leipzig fans miss Ibrahima Konate and Dayot Upamecano, who left for Liverpool and Bayern Munich, respectively, last year.
Now, he has been earmarked by two top clubs in London, who were in a tight transfer battle for his signature in the recently-concluded transfer window. Inter Milan were also said to be in the race for the former Dinamo Zagreb man.
He is on a contract that only expires in the summer of 2027 (Transfermarkt) and that makes it obvious that Leipzig wouldn’t want to lose such a prized asset on the cheap. He has played in nine games for them across competitions this season.
A wise move?
Hence, he is a player that manager Marco Rose relies on heavily. Any offer from Spurs or Chelsea, or any other team for that matter, would have to be good enough to lure Leipzig into offloading their newfound gem.
In Ivan Perisic, Gvardiol would have an international teammate in Spurs’ dressing room but the same can be said for Chelsea and Inter – where Matteo Kovacic and Marcelo Brovovic would be familiar faces for him from Hrvatska’s national team set-up.
Chelsea signed two very good centre-backs this summer in the former of Kalidou Koulibaly and Wesley Fofana. Spurs, however, only managed to sign one centre-back, Clement Lenglet from Barcelona, that too on a season-long loan spell.
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It is imperative that we strengthen our backline with quality in the same way that we have done with our midfield and attack. At 20, Gvardiol could also be a long-term investment and one that can potentially become a leader of the backline at the club.
