According to Tuttosport, Sport Mediaset and Football Italia, Fabio Paratici fancies raiding former club Juventus in order to bring defender Merih Demiral to Tottenham Hotspur.
Paratici only became Tottenham’s new managing director of football last weekend, but the Italian press have already stuck Spurs’ name in every transfer story going.
Domenico Berardi, Manuel Locatelli, Dusan Vlahovic, Nikola Milenkovic… you name a Serie A player, they’ve probably been linked with Spurs this week.
Tottenham’s interest in Demiral
Tuttosport suggest that Milenkovic is one of Paratici’s centre back targets, but he’s also keen on luring 23-year-old Demiral away from Juventus.
Paratici was running Juve’s transfer business when they snapped up Demiral from Sassuolo in the summer of 2019, but the Turkish international has only played 32 games for Juve.
With Juve also having Giorgio Chiellini, Matthijs de Ligt and Leonardo Bonucci, Demiral could be tempted into leaving Juventus – at least that’s what Paratici hopes.
Who is more likely to join – Demiral or Milenkovic?
Milenkovic has an inch on Demiral, standing at 6ft 5in tall compared to Demiral’s 6ft 4in frame, but both players are very powerful; Demiral has even likened to Nemanja Vidic.
Demiral is quicker, but Milenkovic is more versatile with his ability to play at right back, which is something for Paratici and Tottenham to consider.
Milenkovic would likely come cheaper too, so we would give the edge to the Fiorentina man if trying to predict at Tottenham signing – but Paratici’s links to Juve could help the Demiral chase.
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