Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United are targeting a defender with ‘great potential’ in Nikola Milenkovic, Viola team-mate Krzysztof Piatek tells Fiorentina Weekly.
You can probably count on one hand the number of centre-halves who have managed to get the better of Dusan Vlahovic this season. Then again, Milenkovic had quite the advantage over his Serie A counterparts.
The 6ft 5ins colossus spent the last couple of years sharing a dressing room with Juventus’ new number seven at the Stadio Artemio Franchi after all. Milenkovic and fellow Serb Vlahovic are team-mates at international level too.
Then again, knowing Vlahovic is one thing. Stopping him is another challenge altogether.
But as Fiorentina ran old rivals Juventus close in the Coppa Italia semi-final first-leg – only a stoppage time own goal from Lorenzo Venuti giving Max Allegri’s side the win – the usually irrepressible Vlahovic was strangely subdued.
Is Nikola Milenkovic finally heading to the Premier League?
“Nikola? He has great potential,” says Piatek, Vlahovic’s Fiorentina successor.
“The last few games, we played against (Bologna’s Marko) Arnautovic and he cancelled him out. The same with (Moise) Kean and Vlahovic.”
More performances like the one against Juventus and Milenkovic – who came within touching distance of joining West Ham in the summer of 2021 – will once again be a man in high demand. N
ewcastle held talks with the former Partizan Belgrade giant a couple of weeks ago (Calciomercato). It is a testament to the club’s new found financial riches that even a £37.5 million asking price is unlikely to put Newcastle off (The Sun).
According to reports in Italy, Tottenham are interested too. Spurs are long-time admirers of Milenkovic.
And one suspects that the appointments of Antonio Conte and Fabio Paratici – who will know Milenkovic from their time in Serie A – would do the defender’s hopes of a move to North London no harm at all.
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