Rennes’s sporting director Florian Maurice has admitted that the ‘ambitious’ Mbaye Niang could push to leave the Ligue 1 outfit this summer amid reported interest from Tottenham, West Ham and Newcastle United, speaking to RMC Sport.
Like Memphis Depay and Mario Balotelli, a one-time wonderkid has benefitted from taking a step back in French football after hitting a brick wall in his development.
Niang struggled to force his way into the first-team picture at AC Milan but, since moving to Brittany in 2018, the Senegal international has flourished away from the limelight.
He has scored 15 goals in each of his two seasons in Rennes colours.
But after firing Julian Stephan’s side into the Champions League places, the former Watford loanee could be heading back to the Premier League with Spurs showing an interest in signing a man who could be Harry Kane’s back-up in north London (L’Equipe).
FootMercato, meanwhile, claimed in June that West Ham and Newcastle are also keen on the £18 million-rated speed-machine.
And Maurice is not surprised to learn that Niang is tempted to sample the green, green grass elsewhere, drawing comparison with another Ligue 1 forward who his relentlessly linked with a big-money switch to England.
“I experienced this in Lyon with Memphis Depay; these are players who are ambitious, who want to see elsewhere,” says Maurice, who was the recruitment manager at Lyon before moving to Rennes, as translated by Sport.
“Now, it’s discussions that we will have with him. It should also be noted that the player (Niang) has ambition, maybe he wants to go and play elsewhere.
“He is under contract with Stade Rennais, so I think we will calmly see how it will go.”
Niang has flirted very publicly with a move to Marseille recently and his decision to talk about a summer move to the media has not gone down at all well on the other side of the Channel.
BuzzSport reported last week that Rennes coach Stephan is far from happy with his motormouth forward, while 1998 World Cup winner Christophe Duggary didn’t exactly mince his words (RMC).
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