Tottenham Hotspur missed out on two exciting wingers during the January transfer window.
But while the Luis Diaz ship has most certainly sailed – now little more than a fading dot on the horizon – the Adama Traore deal is far from dead. It’s in stasis if anything.
Schrödinger’s transfer, if you like.
Not long ago, Barcelona president Joan Laporta admitted that striking a permanent deal for the Wolverhampton Wanderers loanee would be ‘difficult’ due to the club’s precarious financial situation.
At the time, he added that Barca would ‘love’ to tie their La Masia graduate down to a long-term deal.
But Traore’s second spell at the Camp Nou is a fitting metaphor for his career as a whole. An explosive start fizzling out into nothingness. After producing assists in his first two games back at Barcelona, Traore is now on a run of eight games without a goal, an assist or even a La Liga start.
According to Sport, Barcelona have come to the conclusion that they’d rather avoid triggering the £25 million purchase clause in the Spain international’s contract.
Just in case you were wondering Spurs fans, that creaking noise is the sound of a window of opportunity opening up.
Will Adama Traore eventually leave Wolves for Spurs?
Tottenham failed with a £15 million bid for Traore in January, per Sky Sports. If Spurs are willing to supplement that opening offer with a further £10 million – though this is far from certain given Daniel Levy’s rather miserly ways – then Wolves will not stand in his way.
Who knows, the Black Country side may even be willing to accept £15 million these days, with Traore about to enter the final 12 months of his Molineux deal.
“Adama is unique,” former Wolves and Spurs boss Nuno Espirito Santo said last year, via The Echo. “He’s very special He’s so special, so unique, that you always want the best to happen to him.
“Adama is unique. I repeat, when I say unique I say unique all over football. There is no player like Adama.”
Wolves’ pursuit of Goncalo Guedes – a long-time transfer target available on a cut-price deal despite his effervescent displays at Valencia – certainly paint the picture of a club preparing for life without Traore and his baby-oil biceps (Telegraph).
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Wolverhampton Wanderers have also held talks with the agent of Shakhtar Donetsk winger Pedrinho, an £18 million Brazilian who played under Bruno Lage at Benfica. According to A Bola, they will test the waters with an approach for Benfica speed-machine Rafa Silva too.
If the Diaz ship has sailed for Spurs, then Traore may soon be pulling into shore.
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