Nicolo Barella is unlikely to reunite with Antonio Conte at Tottenham Hotspur, with FC Inter News reporting that the Serie A champion would only be tempted by Premier League rivals Manchester United.
Both Spurs and United have a hard-running, sweat-shedding scrapper in Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Fred.
They have got deep-lying distributors in Nemanja Matic and Harry Winks. They’ve got the odd dainty number ten, too, a Jesse Lingard, a Giovani Lo Celso.
What two of the Premier League’s underachievers are lacking, however, is someone capable of doing it all in the centre of the park; a dictator and a destroyer, a string-pulling, tempo-setting, press-leading, pass-playing, tough-tackling midfield general capable of breaking up play at one end and finishing off chances at the other.
Look no further, then, than Nicolo Barella.
Serie A champion in May, European Champion two months after that, Inter’s Italy international has established himself as one of the world’s very best – and most complete – central midfielders in recent months; the driving force for club and country.
He has been compared to Paul Scholes and N’Golo Kante; Lothar Matthaus thinks he’s superior to Marco Verratti and Frenkie de Jong. He could be the closest thing Manchester United have had to a snarling Roy Keane or a readymade successor for Moussa Dembele at Tottenham Hotspur.
“Barella is without a shadow of a doubt one of the three best midfielders in European football. Without a shadow of a doubt,” Fabio Capello said recently.
Could Antonio Conte lure Nicolo Barella to Tottenham?
During their time together at the San Siro, Conte described Barella as ‘perfect in every way’, adding that he has energy reserves that Italy teammates Verratti and Jorginho cannot match.
The admiration is mutual. Barella insisted that he would be willing to go to war and give his life for football’s ferocious drill sergeant.
Unfortunately for Spurs, while Barella may be ‘prepared to die’ for Conte, what he is not prepared to do is pack his bags and call off negotiations over a new contract at the San Siro.
According to FC Inter News, Barella is on the verge of extending his stay at the Italian giants until 2026; a new £75,000-a-week wage a fitting reward for his barnstorming performances.
Furthermore, despite his undying admiration for all things Conte, FC Inter News believe that Barella would choose Manchester United over Tottenham anyway.
Spurs’ pursuit of a new midfield general, then, is unlikely to come to an end any time soon.
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