Did Tottenham Hotspur give up on signing Serie A’s best defender Minjae Kim (SSC Napoli)?
British media Daily Mail reported 스포츠토토on the 10th (Korean time) that “Tottenham wants to sign Mark Gehey (Crystal Palace) to strengthen their defense next season.”
As for the background of the recruitment promotion, he explained, “Tottenham have doubts about Davinson Sanchez after the contract period of defender Clement Lenglet, who was hired on loan from Barcelona, has expired.”
He added, “Alessandro Bastoni, Milan Shkriniar (above Inter Milan) and Yoshko Gbardiol (RB Leipzig) are also included in the Tottenham scouting radar, but it seems difficult to achieve.”
The media said, “Tottenham are showing great interest in signing Gehi, but Palace will consider selling only after receiving a huge offer to protect an important player in the team.”
Regarding the transfer fee, “Gehi plays an important role in Patrick Vieira’s managerial system, but if Tottenham proposes a transfer fee of 45 million pounds (about 68.7 billion won), Palace can be shaken,” he said.
Tottenham seem to be stepping up their efforts to bring in two or more center backs next season.
However, Kim Min-jae, who was trying to bring in during the days of coach Jose Mourinho, who took the baton from 2019 to 2020, is not on the list.
Coach Mourinho attended a press conference ahead of the league match against Napoli on the 28th of last month and said, “I wanted Kim Min-jae from Tottenham. We had several conversations via video call, and he also wanted to come to Tottenham.”
“Tottenham’s offer was 5 million euros (about 6.7 billion won), and at the time, his ransom was 10 million euros (about 13.4 billion won),” he said. Even though I could, I only offered 5 million euros.”
Since then, there have been reports that Tottenham regretted not recruiting Kim Min-jae, but there is no news that they are promoting the recruitment again.
There is no Kim Min-jae in the new centre-back candidates recently reported in the media, but players from his Italian league rival team Inter Milan are on the list.
There are rumors of Kim Min-jae transferring to Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain, which are ranked higher than Tottenham.