Director rules out Nottingham Forest or Tottenham move for prolific striker

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Bari sporting director Ciro Polito insists that star striker Walid Cheddira will stay at the Serie B outfit until June amid interest from Premier League duo Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur, speaking to Tuttomercatoweb. 

Could Cheddira succeed where Fernando Llorente, Carlos Vinicius and co largely failed and provide genuine competition for the hitherto irreplaceable Harry Kane at Tottenham Hotspur?

We’ll have to wait a few more months for the answer to that particular question; Bari determined to retain the services of Serie B’s most prolific marksman until the summer at least.

Bari are, after all, sitting pretty in third. Retaining Cheddira could be the difference between promotion back to Serie A after a decade away, and another season in the second tier. 

Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest like Walid Cheddira of Morocco

“Unless something that cannot be ignored happens, (Cheddira and goalkeeper Elia Caprile) are Bari players until June,” Polito says.

According to Serie B News, Cheddira’s prolific run of form has caught the eye of Fabio Paratici; Spurs’ Italian director. Paratici spent over a decade working behind the scenes at Juventus. And some of his most successful signings since moving to North London have come from Serie A. Cristian Romero, Rodrigo Bentacur and Dejan Kulusevski, for instance. 

Gianluca di Marzio, meanwhile, believes that big-spending Nottingham Forest are also fans of Cheddira. The £7 million-rated striker has nine goals in 12 starts so far in 2022/23. 

Cheddira is, however, one of the few Morocco players who’s reputation arguably took a hit en route ot the semi-finals of the Qatar World Cup. In stark contrast to, say, Sofyan Amrabat and Azzedine Ounahi. He missed a glorious opportunity of the bench against Spain in the last-16. Cheddira was also sent off against Portugal for two needless yellow cards in the quarter-finals. 

“Interest from Serie A? It is still early. The boy is very happy in Bari,” Cheddira’s agent Bruno di Napoli explaisn (Radio Punto Nuovo). “He has a contract here until 2025.”