Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly looking to raid Serie A strugglers Fiorentina for exciting winger Riccardo Sottil.
If there is one thing Fiorentina cannot afford right now, it’s passengers.
One of the biggest and most iconic clubs in Italian football are far closer to the bottom of the table than they are to the top these days and, with less than three months of a miserable 2019/20 campaign remaining, La Viola are hovering nervously above the Serie A relegation zone.
Until Riccardo Sottil proves that he is willing to sacrifice blood, sweat and tears for the cause, one of the most exciting young talents in Europe will have to get used to spending most of his time on the substitutes’ bench.
“(Sottil) does less defensive work: that’s the reason,” Fiorentina coach Beppe Iachini admitted when asked why the winger has played just 50 minutes of football since the turn of the year, failing to appear at all in the last two Serie A games.
“Now, only points are needed.”
According to Calciomercato, Tottenham Hotspur have sent scouts over to the Stadio Artemio Franchi to watch Sottil in action. But if the 20-year-old thinks Iachini is a tough taskmaster, just wait until he meets Jose Mourinho.
With his newly-shaved scalp and those heavy, furrowed eyebrows, Mourinho is not a man you want to get on the wrong side of.
Just ask Eden Hazard. The brilliant Belgian might be one of the most gifted and creative players in the game today but his apparent reluctance to do the hard yards defensively didn’t go down well with Mourinho during their tumultuous time together at Chelsea.
The former Real Madrid boss even blamed Hazard for Chelsea’s Champions League semi-final defeat to Atletico Madrid in 2014, claiming that the Blues’ number ten was “not the kind of player ready to sacrifice himself 100 per cent for the team and his mates (Independent).”
Sottil, be warned. If you’re going to play under Mourinho, you will have to up your game.
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