Tottenham Hotspur have made Morgan Rogers a priority target after missing out on Eberechi Eze, and contact has already been made with intermediaries to see if a deal is possible.
Aston Villa do not want to sell a young star who on Tuesday won PFA Young Player of the Year, but there is a feeling that a proper bid might change things, especially as the Birmingham club continue to face PSR constraints.
One huge obstacle for Spurs is that Rogers is expected to cost considerably more than Eze, given that he has a contract until 2030. While figures of £80m have already been mentioned in Spurs circles, it might have to go even higher to make Villa think.
This all comes amid increasing pressure on the Tottenham hierarchy, after the high-profile nature in which they missed out on both Morgan Gibbs-White at Nottingham Forest and Eze. There is also a pressing need for attacking players, after the injury to James Maddison.
Villa see Rogers as their club star, but they have had a situation where the wage bill was recently over 90 per cent of revenue, which led to a Uefa fine of £9.5m for breaching financial rules. They also have to comply with settlement restrictions on the registration of new players, unless the value of new signings is recouped in sales.
Spurs’s interest comes after a bid of around £67m for Manchester City’s Savinho has faltered, although as we revealed earlier, the club also have a number of other attacking targets on their list.
They ideally want to get Monaco’s Maghnes Akliouche and one other attacker in to fill the hole left by Eze’s move to their north London rivals.
There are still several targets available, albeit with Spurs having lost their leverage now that every club knows they need to do business, and in addition to the Akliouche interest, an approach has been made for Southampton’s Tyler Dibling, and the possibility of Xavi Simons has been discussed, after the Leipzig player’s move to Chelsea stalled.
The Independent has also been told that Spurs had looked at reviving interest in Conor Gallagher, but there is a feeling that his wages at Atletico Madrid are too high, and many close to the situation feel Como’s Nico Paz is the most achievable transfer.