Tottenham lost Eberechi Eze a year back to an Arsenal hijack.
Tottenham Hotspur have been vying to bring in a new marquee midfielder at Hotspur Way in the ongoing summer transfer window. And Roberto De Zerbi has been pushing to bring in either Sandro Tonali or Mateus Fernandes at N17.
But with Manchester United having a firm hold of that Fernandes transfer, the Lilywhites have apparently put their eggs in Tonali’s basket.
Aside from the fact that De Zerbi can convince his countryman to join him at N17, Spurs are also willing to offer him £12m a year in wages.
We saw Tottenham make a couple of £75m bids in order to pursue his move from Newcastle United, but the Magpies are persistent on that hundred million price tag if they are to let the Italian international depart St. James Park this summer.
Arsenal enter Tonali race
But as Tottenham struggles to secure a deal with Newcastle to bring Tonali to North London from Tyneside, Arsenal have taken notice. And according to a recent report from the BBC, Arsenal have held exploratory talks with both of Newcastle’s midfielders, Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali, as Mikel Arteta & Co. look to bring quality to their second phase options before the new season commences.
The Gunners’ interest in the aforementioned duo sits alongside Arsenal’s already well-documented pursuits of Bournemouth’s Alex Scott and Lille’s Ayyoub Bouaddi.
Author Opinion
Having seen how badly this exact situation played out for the Lilywhites with both Eberechi Eze and Morgan Gibbs-White last summer, the Lilywhites’ supporters will relive that trauma of knowing that this knock from Arsenal can suddenly change the minds of many players, especially with Arteta leading the talks.
But according to the same report, as of now Berta is only looking to bring in one first-choice central midfielder this summer and not more than one. And this set of a wide list of players is the exact thing that Tottenham supporters should be focusing on instead of getting worked up over Arsenal entering the race.
The report states that the Gunners have reached out to agents of both Guimaraes and Tonali to get an idea of the terms of their deals. This sort of preliminary information is usually gathered by clubs behind the scenes if they do not really have any intention of making an offer for any of them. And that is exactly what Tottenham fans would be hoping for in this Tonali race.
Do you think Arsenal can hijack Tonali’s transfer from under Tottenham’s noses, given the Lilywhites are ready to pay £12m a year to him?