Conte in face-to-face talks with £25m Tottenham target, coach wants sale

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Antonio Conte held face-to-face talks with Atalanta playmaker Ruslan Malinovskyi over the summer with Tottenham Hotspur still hoping to bring the Serie A ace to the Premier League, Ukrainian reporter Viktor Vatsko says on his YouTube channel. 

This feels like one of those transfers that just suits everybody down to the ground.

Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini made it clear over the summer, when he hoped to cash in on Malinovskyi, that he wanted a player with more of a goal threat to take the 29-year-old’s place in his starting XI. A player Gasperini now appears to have found in the newly-prolific Ademola Lookman. 

Tottenham, meanwhile, are crying out for an addition of creativity and guile in the centre of the park; Spurs’ lack of quality depth exposed in brutal fashion during the 2-0 EFL Cup defeat to Nottingham Forest, a team shorn of Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur resembling a hapless burglar trying to pick a lock with a hairbrush rather than a hairpin.

Atalanta’s Ruslan Malinovskyi may be exactly what Tottenham Hotspur need

Conte, Corriere dello Sera say, sees Malinovskyi as ideal support for the talismanic, currently-irreplaceable Kulusevski. In the last four years, the former Genk ace provided 45 assists from his attacking midfield role, while scoring a further 42 goals – most of those coming from his fierce left boot. 

“(Gasperini) already wanted to sell Malinovskyi in the summer,” Vatsko explains. “(Malinovskyi and Conte) had face-to-face meetings. He wanted to sign him, he sees him in his plans.”

According to Calciomercato, Tottenham have approached Atalanta president Antonio Percassi – alongside West Ham United and Nottingham Forest – to enquire about the possibility of a January deal. Vatsko, however, believes that Malinovskyi will cost a lot more than a reported fee of £11 million, with some reports suggesting it would take £25 million for La Dea to cash in. 

But if Wednesday night at the City Ground proved anything, it’s that a player of Malinovskyi’s ilk could be nothing short of priceless if Tottenham are to end their long trophy drought sooner rather than later.