Tottenham want Hakim Ziyech and Ajax may now be backing away from a move to sign the Chelsea playmaker before the deadline.
Chelsea are expected to be very busy in the final days of the transfer market and much of the focus is on who could arrive at Stamford Bridge.
Yet there could be many departures from Chelsea too, with a host of fringe players potentially looking to leave the club.
One of them is Ziyech, who hasn’t quite lived up to his billing since joining from Ajax for a huge £33million back in 2020.
Tottenham want Hakim Ziyech
Ziyech has played just 26 minutes so far this season and started only 14 Premier League games last season.
The Moroccan needs first-team football and it just isn’t going to come at Chelsea – especially if they go on a signing spree.
Tottenham are very interested in Ziyech according to Algemeen Dagblad over in the Netherlands, who reported that Spurs are fighting Ajax.
The idea for Ajax was to re-sign Ziyech as a replacement for Antony, who is being targeted by Manchester United.
However, the Daily Mail report that Ajax’s talks for Ziyech are at risk of collapsing, with little progress being made with Chelsea as things stand.
Ajax are now understood to be considering other targets, meaning Ziyech may not be heading to Amsterdam after all.
That may leave Tottenham as the surprise leaders in the race for Ziyech, but you can imagine that talks between the two clubs won’t be simple.
Tottenham and Chelsea don’t exactly get along, as we saw at Stamford Bridge earlier this month, and we very rarely see transfers directly between the clubs.
Still, if Tottenham moving to sign Ziyech helps Chelsea’s own incoming business, they may well be tempted to let the 29-year-old go to Spurs.
Antonio Conte is lacking a real number 10, and Ziyech could certainly fill that role whilst offering competition for Dejan Kulusevski in from the right flank.
The coming days promise to be very interesting for Ziyech, who may not return to his former club but instead join one of Chelsea’s biggest rivals.
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