Tottenham Hotspur’s Lucas Moura was reportedly wanted by Barcelona on deadline day.
Tottenham Hotspur managed to avoid any major departures on deadline day on Monday, but one player allegedly received some shock interest.
Spurs were maybe fearing that Christian Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld or Jan Vertonghen would move on at the end of the window, but they all stayed put.
So did Victor Wanyama despite interest in his signature, and it seems that Spurs received a late move from Barcelona for Lucas Moura.
Mundo Deportivo report that Barcelona wanted Moura after missing out on Neymar, but abandoned their pursuit after learning that Tottenham’s asking price was at least €50million (£45million).
Moura, 27, joined Spurs for £25million in January 2018 (BBC Sport), leaving the Paris Saint-Germain sidelines for a shot at success in the Premier League.
The Brazilian initially made a slow start to life with Spurs, but hit 10 Premier League goals last season, and of course produced heroics to send Tottenham to the Champions League final with a hat-trick against Ajax.
Moura started this season in the Spurs attack but has been benched for a couple of games, including Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Arsenal, in which he didn’t even come on as a substitute.
Barcelona seemingly attempted to take advantage, but weren’t prepared to pay big money for a player who may have only been a placeholder until a 2020 move for Neymar become possible again.
Spurs fans have been taking to Twitter to react, suggesting that it was ‘madness’ to even entertain the approach by replying with an asking price, with many feeling Daniel Levy was asking for too cheap of a fee.
Others thing that Barcelona’s interest highlights how Moura should get more chances with Spurs, and others believing that a move would have been received very, very badly.
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