If there is one thing Tottenham Hotspur fans have on their Christmas wish list for the January transfer window, then it is a top class left winger who can bring goals to the table and help change games for Spurs, who have not signed a top left winger to replace Son Heung-min.
Savinho was not made available by Manchester City despite strong transfer interest from Tottenham this past summer window, while Spurs did not make a serious enough approach for Ademola Lookman, who was on his knees begging for a transfer away from Bergamo.
Because of Lookman's quality as one of the best players in Serie A over the last three seasons and his eagerness to leave Italian football, Tottenham fans have been expecting Fabio Paratici and Thomas Frank to circle back to Bergamo for another high profile swoop from Serie A.
Tottenham need a winter upgrade
However, Atalanta just fired the woeful Ivan Juric, mercifully ending the reign of an overmatched manager they should have never hired. They have replaced him with Raffaelle Palladino, the young genius who transformed Fiorentina back into a top team.
According to a report from TEAMtalk's Dean Jones, that switch in manager may be enough to pull Lookman back in and convince him to stay with La Dea. And per Jones, Palladino is already trying to convince Lookman of the project, his importance to the team, and the reasons for him to stay an Atalanta player through the January transfer window.
It looks like Tottenham are about to lose out on their most convenient left wing target - someone who can score double digit goals and even assists while winning one on ones. Spurs fans had Lookman earmarked as an easy upgrade they could achievably sign in the winter window, but now that is all cast in doubt by Atalanta being smart enough to hire a competent, player centric manager in Palladino.
Anything can happen between now and January, but under that anything can happen mantra is the inclusion of Lookman staying with Atalanta. Palladino has done great things in Serie A and is the kind of manager who can turn Atalanta back into a powerhouse after the slow start from the awful Juric, and he isn't as hard to work with as Gian Piero Gasperini, who turned on Lookman just the same way he had turned on players like Papu Gomez in the past. Spurs need to be wary now.