Speaking on The Last Word on Spurs YouTube channel, Lyall Thomas has been discussing Tottenham and their reported interest in Nicolo Zaniolo.
Spurs have been strongly linked with Zaniolo all summer long, but interestingly, Thomas says that Tottenham’s interest in the Italian isn’t quite what it seems.
Indeed, the journalist says that Spurs were only keen on Zaniolo when Roma came to them about a deal for Tanguy Ndombele, with the reporter stating that Tottenham tried to do a swap deal as Roma couldn’t afford to bring Ndombele to the Italian capital.
However, understandably, Jose Mourinho’s side turned down the idea of swapping Zaniolo for Ndombele.
What’s been said?
Thomas shared what he knows about Spurs’ interest in Zaniolo.
“Spurs have been trying to get some players they really like who may not necessarily be available from clubs who are interested in their players,” Thomas said.
“I’ll give you an example, the reason we saw the interest in Nicolo Zaniolo initially was because Roma had an interest in Tanguy Ndombele and the conversation went along the lines of ‘we want a deal for him, but we can’t afford the terms’ and Spurs said ‘What if you give us one of yours and we like Zaniolo’. The response was that they didn’t want to sell Zaniolo because he’s Mr. Roma, he came through the academy, he’s their favourite player, so they didn’t want to part with him under any circumstances.”
Never going to take the bait
Tottenham have some cheek about them suggesting a swap involving Ndombele and Zaniolo.
Let’s be frank, Tanguy Ndombele has been a disaster for Spurs – hence why they’ve been so happy to loan him out to Napoli, while, as Thomas says, Zaniolo is one of Roma’s most important players.
It’s genuinely ridiculous to suggest that this would’ve been a fair swap for Roma, and it’s fair to say that the Italian giants were never going to take the bait on this one.
It was worth a try, but this swap deal suggestion was way too audacious.
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