According to Le Parisien, Tottenham Hotspur were offered swap deals by Paris Saint-Germain for Dele Alli.
It’s claimed that PSG are still pushing for a loan deal to sign Alli, but Spurs would need to sign a replacement in order to let him go.
In an NBA-style three-way trade, an idea was floated involving Inter Milan; Alli to PSG, Leandro Paredes to Inter, and Christian Eriksen to Tottenham.
That didn’t happen, and PSG also offered Spurs swap deals involving Idrissa Gueye and Julian Draxler, but that didn’t work either.
Spurs don’t want to let Alli go permanently, so they had no interest in taking a couple of players in exchange on permanent deals.
An appealing swap offer
You have to say, it’s pretty tempting. It’s unclear whether both were offered up in one deal, or whether it was a ‘one or the other’ situation, but if both were offered, it was pretty attractive.
Jose Mourinho relies heavily on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg at the base of his midfield, but adding a proven Premier League battler like Gueye would have given him another option to protect his back four.
Draxler could have given Spurs a playmaker to replace Alli, and whilst neither would be particularly long-term options, they would have presented immediate quality.
Maybe Tottenham were worried about the homegrown issue; losing an English player for one or two foreign players could have given Tottenham a problem.
Rejecting Gueye and Draxler really does show that Spurs see a long-term future for Alli, despite his lack of first-team action under Jose Mourinho.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
