Newcastle play hard ball over
Spurs are rebuffed with opening offer of £15.75m as midfielder leaves France camp to help push through transfer
TOTTENHAM today offered close to £16million for Moussa Sissoko but Newcastle were looking for a substantially higher fee for the France midfielder.
Standard Sport revealed yesterday that Sissoko had become a late transfer window target for Spurs and the club attempted to accelerate a deal this morning with an initial offer of £15.75m.
If Sissoko did arrive, he could be one of three players to do so on deadline day, with attacker Georges-Kevin Nkoudou and goalkeeper Pau Lopez also due to complete moves to White Hart Lane.
Sissoko, 27, was given permission to leave the France national squad so he would be in place to undertake a medical and conclude contract talks should the clubs agree a fee.
Tottenham are willing to let midfielder Tom Carroll leave and it was suggested that the 24-year-old could be included in a second offer for Sissoko.
Yet Newcastle have set Sissoko’s price at £35m all summer, which has been deemed too high by the many clubs who admire him. It is likely, therefore, that they would have to drop that fee considerably to do business.
At the start of the summer, Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino requested a striker, a defensive midfielder and a pacy attacker. Vincent Janssen joined to improve the forward line, while Victor Wanyama arrived to help out in the middle. At this stage, Nkoudou is the man earmarked for the wide attacking role.
Nkoudou was ready to join Tottenham from Marseille more than a month ago but the move was delayed after a change of ownership at the French club.
However, the 21-year-old is thought to have been training with Spurs and the £9m transfer ought to go through today, possibly with Clinton Njie moving in the opposite direction on loan.
Espanyol keeper Lopez was also expected to arrive on a season-long loan, with a £6m option to buy at the end of the season.
That places question marks over the long-term future of Michel Vorm, who has deputised well for the injured Hugo Lloris and was man of the match in the recent 1-1 draw with Liverpool.
Tottenham have allowed Ryan Mason and Nacer Chadli to leave for Hull and West Brom respectively this week as they sought to move on players no longer wanted by Pochettino. Nabil Bentaleb was another who fell into that category and has joined Schalke on loan.
Yet both Heung-Min Son and Kevin Wimmer are now likely to remain at White Hart Lane, even though it was thought that both could leave. Wolfsburg were interested in taking Son, bought for £22m from Bayer Leverkusen only a year ago, back to the Bundesliga but did not match Spurs’ valuation of the South Korea forward.
Wimmer seems to have slipped down the pecking order during the early part of the campaign — he was not even on the bench against Liverpool. But Pochettino needs defensive options with his club involved in four competitions, including the Champions League, this season.
Reports in Germany linked Schalke forward Max Meyer with a £32m move to White Hart Lane but that was considered highly unlikely with so little time remaining before the window closed.