Tottenham Hotspur are expecting to ramp up their interest in Crystal Palace attacking midfielder Eberechi Eze in the coming days, according to Mike McGrath of the Telegraph. Eze has seemingly shot to the top of Tottenham’s transfer want-list after the long-term injury to James Maddison.
Spurs have had a long-term interest in Eze going back years to when he was still at Queens Park Rangers, but this feels like the first time Tottenham could actually make a concrete attempt to sign him. Eze has a £68m release clause in his Crystal Palace contract that expires on Friday, but Tottenham’s negotiations seem to be attempting to seal a deal for less than that price. Eze currently has two years left on his Palace contract, and he was at one point this summer very close to a transfer to Arsenal.
We don’t know yet how much it would cost to get Palace to agree to sell Eze, one of their best players. There were spurious reports earlier in the week that Tottenham had a £40m approach knocked back by Palace, but indications are that a deal could be reached for below Eze’s fee. Wages are not thought to be a problem, with suggestions he’s currently on £100k/wk on his current Palace deal.
We’ll see. Spurs are also working closely on a deal for 20-year-old Brazilian winger Savinho from Manchester City that is supposedly entirely separate and not linked to an approach for Eze. Tottenham manager Thomas Frank has said he wants to bring in a forward, an attacking midfielder, and a central defender before the transfer window closes.