The last time we heard news about Mathys Tel, it was the suggestion that Tottenham Hotspur were not going to trigger his £50m purchase option after his loan from Bayern Munich, but they’d still try and sign him this summer. Now, according to Bayern Munich sporting director Max Eberl, we can at least confirm that Spurs are doing just that.
Eberl told Abendzeitung München (via SportWitness) that Bayern and Spurs are “in talks” over a permanent transfer for Tel that is almost certainly less than the original option. That means the club brass were impressed with Tel’s performance and improvement over his half season loan and are keen to bring him back under Thomas Frank.
Here’s what Eberl said about Tel:
“Mathys was at Tottenham for six months. He wanted to play in the U21 European championship with France, and we allowed him to. We’re talking to Tottenham, that’s no secret. We’ll see how that pans out.”
Sounds good! It’s not much of an update, but when the sporting director of a major European club says they’re talking to Spurs, then they’re talking to Spurs. There are still plenty of opportunities for these negotiations to go sideways, especially if Bayern aren’t willing to go down to whatever Spurs’ number is, but considering they’re basically begging clubs to take him this summer I kind of expect a deal will get done at some point.