Tottenham Hotspur have made an approach to sign a “special” player from Man City, as Ange Postecoglou’s side chase their first outfield winter deal in dramatic fashion.
Tottenham’s scattergun January market amid injury crisis
It is never a normal day at Spurs, with club chairman Daniel Levy and technical director Johan Lange desperately attempting to back Postecoglou in the final days of this window amid the club’s severe injury crisis.
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Daniel Levy is forced to look at other options.
Dominic Solanke, Wilson Odobert, Cristian Romero, James Maddison, Destiny Udogie, Guglielmo Vicario, Timo Werner, Brennan Johnson and Radu Dragusin are all set to miss Tottenham’s clash away to Brentford on Sunday, with Postecoglou in disbelief over their bad luck with injuries this season.
“Every time I’ve seen the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s usually been an oncoming train,” said Postecoglou on Tottenham’s player availability concerns.
“We’ve obviously got a big week, but we play Villa in the cup, and then we’ve got a clean week to Manchester United (on February 16) and that’s the week all of them are sort of scheduled to start training.
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Tottenham’s next five Premier League fixtures |
Date |
|---|---|
|
Brentford (away) |
February 2nd |
|
Man United (home) |
February 16th |
|
Ipswich Town (home) |
February 22nd |
|
Man City (home) |
February 26th |
|
Bournemouth (home) |
March 9th |
“To have a full week of training with those guys available leading into the Man United game, I think it is a little bit of a point for us to relaunch our campaign, particularly in the league, but then we have real big games of consequence in the cups coming around as well.
“I mean, that’s why I’m trying to manage the minutes of the guys we have available because we don’t want to lose anyone else.”
In botched attempts to reinforce the squad recently, Randal Kolo Muani snubbed a move to Tottenham in favour of Juventus, while Bayern Munich starlet Mathys Tel also rejected Spurs’ advances.
Tottenham now appear to have adopted a scattergun approach to the final 72 hours of the window, as many names are linked with moves to north London.
According to journalist Graeme Bailey, writing for The Boot Room, Man City attacking midfielder James McAtee is now a target for the Lilywhites.
Tottenham have made contact over signing McAtee from City in the last 36 hours, and while it is stated that Pep Guardiola’s side are not entertaining the prospect of him leaving, what is clear is that the homegrown Englishman could tick many boxes for Postecoglou.
McAtee can play a variety of roles in the final third and may be worth a punt considering he’s hardly featured for the Sky Blues this campaign. The 22-year-old is still young with plenty of resale value, so if Levy were to pursue a permanent deal, it would also make sense from a business perspective.
The former Sheffield United star’s price tag stands at around £25m, and Guardiola has previously branded McAtee a “special” player.
“I’m so happy for him, he’s a special player,” said Guardiola after McAtee’s hat-trick against Salford City in the FA Cup.
“Making a hat-trick is not easy. He started a bit flat, I would say, but after, he has an incredible sense in front of the goal. He has the right tempo, changed the rhythm to score and [I’m] really happy for him.”