Joe: The latest view from North London
TOTTENHAM Hotspur remain keen on striking a deal with Swansea City to sign central defender Joe Rodon this week.
Spurs, along with Leicester City and West Ham, have been heavily linked with a swoop for the Welshman, although time is running out for a deal to be done.
But how serious are Spurs about the 22-year-old and what sort of fee would they pay?
We spoke to Football London’s Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold to find out more about Spurs’ interest in the Swans academy product.
Q AHow and why has he emerged as a transfer target for Spurs? He’s one the scouts have been keeping tabs on but their unsuccessful attempt to bring Milan Skriniar in from Inter Milan has probably increased their attempts to bring in bodies in central defence for the long term.
Q AThere certainly seems to be an interest in Rodon, among other young Championship defenders they will have looked at, but it will only be at the price Spurs are happy with.
Whether that tallies up with what Swansea want is another thing.
Q AHow serious are Tottenham about signing him? What fee would Spurs be willing to pay Swansea for Rodon?
Daniel Levy rarely overspends on a player and I would be surprised if Spurs are willing to pay anywhere near the £20m sum being touted for Rodon, a talented player no doubt but a relatively inexperienced one with just over 50 Championship matches to his name.
To put it into context, Tottenham just paid £13.5m with no add-ons for Matt Doherty, the Premier League’s second-most creative right-back of the past two seasons.
Their biggest outlay in the summer was on Sergio Reguilon and they spent around £28m on a Real Madrid player voted as the best left-back in La Liga last season who won the Europa League and finished in the top four on loan at Sevilla.
I can’t see them spending just £8m less on Rodon.
When Spurs sign younger players who will not be first-team starters immediately, the deals are often more geared towards the future payments for appearances or targets met etc.
I would be surprised if Tottenham were to offer any more than £10m up front.
Q AWould he be a starter at Tottenham? Not right now. He would most likely be one for the future unless he managed to absolutely wow Mourinho in training straightaway.
As well as Eric Dier, Toby Alderweireld and Davinson Sanchez ahead of him, Spurs have the very talented England U21 international Japhet Tanganga who is a player Mourinho likes a lot.
A loan move back to Swansea might serve Rodon better unless he’s happy with playing for Tottenham mostly in the domestic cup competitions.
QAWhat have Jose Mourinho/ Trevor Birch said about Rodon and strengthening the defensive options? They haven’t said anything publicly about the player and this is more a club-driven type of signing than one Mourinho would push for.
It was no secret that Tottenham wanted one top-level centre-back in the main transfer window but were unable to secure one.
Rodon does not come into that category yet, but as Spurs did with Jack Clarke last summer, he’s a player who they believe could potentially reach those levels.