During the summer, Tottenham Hotspur fans got excited by a transfer report.
Well, they got excited by quite a few transfer reports because after all, what fanbase isn’t pining for whatever the rumour mill is churning out?
But Spurs supporters were particularly on board with the idea of signing Lorenzo Pellegrini from Roma.
Calciomercato in Italy reported back in July that Tottenham were getting ready to pay £25 million for the attacker and although that never materialised, the fact that his contract expires next summer, enabling him to move for free, would surely cause Fabio Paratici’s ears to perk up in North London, if he was indeed interested.
But Roma boss Jose Mourinho – sacked by the Lilywhites in April of this year – has some bad news for his last club on this front, claiming via The Mirror that Pellegrini has personally told him that he’ll be extending his contract in the Italian capital.
He said: “He is a player with quality, a great deal of potential and he told me yesterday that he’ll sign the new contract soon.
“I think it can definitively give more strength to this rapport he is building with the fans. Pellegrini is the captain, he will sign a new contract and is very important for us.”
Did Paratici want him?
Well, this we may never know, but it’s certainly plausible.
Tottenham hired Paratici directly from Juventus, where he spent many years as the Serie A giants’ director of football.
And two of the North Londoners’ five summer signings – Pierluigi Gollini and Cristian Romero – were signed from Atalanta.
There’s no doubt that Paratici has a vast amount of contacts for Italy-based players and the idea of Pellegrini being on the shopping list isn’t that unlikely.
But if Mourinho is right, Pellegrini won’t be going to Tottenham or anybody in the near future.
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