Tottenham set to miss out on 25-year-old French midfielder Youssouf Fofana who is closing in on AC Milan move

According to renowned Italian journalist Fabrizio Romano, Tottenham Hotspur are set to miss out on talented 25-year-old French midfielder Youssouf Fofana of AS Monaco who is closing in on a move to AC Milan.

Tottenham have been linked with the player for quite some time now. However, Spurs’ interest merely seemed exploratory more than anything else and missing out on him is unlikely to affect the club much.

Until recently, Fofana was on Les Bleus duty at the Euros 2024 in Germany where his country lost in the semifinals to Spain. Whilst he might not have featured regularly, Didier Deschamps saw the midfielder as a useful option off the bench.

Although Fofana has had his detractors, Deschamps has placed immense trust in the AS Monaco midfielder, having made 21 appearances for the national team so far. In a midfield consisting of the likes of Aurelien Tchouameni, Eduardo Camavinga, Ngolo Kante, Adrien Rabiot and Antonio Griezmann, it’s almost impossible for another midfielder to get in.

A very different midfielder to the other ones in the France squad, Fofana brings an insane amount of physicality and ball-carrying ability with him. Pairing him with more technical midfielders usually tends to bring the best out of him.

AC Milan are keen on signing the French midfielder and bringing him to the Serie A. Tottenham might have had the chance to bring him to the Premier League but the ship has sailed and they might need to move on.

If Spurs had managed to sign the midfielder for Postecoglou, Fofana would have added something very different to the midfield. Having him play alongside Rodrigo Bentancur might have been a dream pairing for Tottenham.

Tottenham need to populate their midfield with different profiles. Yves Bissouma is the genuinely unique midfielder on our roster at the moment. Bentancur, Pape Matar Sarr and Oliver Skipp are kind of similar in what they bring to the table.

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Let’s see if Tottenham look at other midfielders who are in a similar profile to Fofana. If they do that, it would raise the question as to why they didn’t pursue the Frenchman with full vigour but we really don’t know what goes on behind the scenes in a transfer negotiation. All we can do is, ‘trust the process’.