Spurs were linked with Swansea City centre-back Alfie Mawson in the summer but bitter rivals West Ham United are now preparing a bid.
It seems that Alfie Mawson’s reputation has emerged unscathed from Swansea City’s nightmare start to the season.
The Guardian is reporting that West Ham are set to make a bid of around £20 million for the England Under-21 international centre-half in the January transfer window. That is likely to fall short of Swansea’s valuation, however, with the bottom-of-the-table side determined not to lose any more influential players after Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente left in the summer.
But West Ham have money to spend and could see Mawson, who is still just 23, as a key player at the heart of their side for years to come.
The question, however, is whether David Moyes and co will face some competition from close to home. The Sun claimed in the summer that Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino was a big fan of the former Barnsley powerhouse.
And while Spurs went on to smash their transfer record to sign Davinson Sanchez from Ajax, an injury to Toby Alderweireld and the indifferent form of Eric Dier means Pochettino cannot be ruled out from targeting another defender to suit his back-three system.
Mawson, as well as a dominant aerial presence, is a cultured footballer with an impressive passing range – suggesting that he could even step into the boots of Alderweireld one day with the Belgian’s future the subject of regular speculation.
So is this historic West Ham/ Tottenham rivalry set to be revived once again in January?
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