Tottenham have recently emerged as a candidate to sign Bournemouth’s Illia Zabarnyi this summer.
The centre back was excellent for the Cherries last term, as he missed just two Premier League games all season whilst helping Andoni Iraola’s side to an impressive ninth-place finish.
Zabarnyi is now wanted by Spurs this summer, with Daniel Levy reportedly understood to be prepared to match Bournemouth’s £60.5million valuation of the defender.
The Lilywhites are understood to be ready to battle PSG for the Ukrainian’s signature, but their chase of the 22-year-old looks like it could be about to be heavily impacted by matters elsewhere in N17.
Tottenham to halt Zabarnyi pursuit if Romero stays
Cristian Romero’s future has been one of the main talking points at Spurs this summer, as the Argentine has been continually linked with a move to Atletico Madrid.
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However, it has emerged over the last few days that the former Atalanta man could be set to stay in North London, with the Lilywhites ready to offer him another new deal.
With Romero now potentially in line to remain at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, fresh light has been cast on the pursuit of Zabarnyi.
Ex-Spurs scout Bryan King – speaking exclusively to Tottenham News – feels that Tottenham simply don’t need to add another centre half to their ranks, unless one of their current stars is about to head out of the door.
“It all depends on whether Romero or [Micky] van de Ven are leaving the football club,” King said.
“Unless one of them is leaving, I can’t see the necessity to sign Zabarnyi because they’re quite strong at centre half. They’ve got Radu Dragusin, Ben Davies, (Djed) Spence, (Archie) Gray, and they can all play at the centre of defence.
“Why go and spend over £60m at Bournemouth again? They had a failure last year with that. [Dominic] Solanke never produced, given the kind of money that they paid for him.
“I think Spurs would struggle anyway if PSG are in for him.”
Tottenham should spend Zabarnyi money elsewhere
Zabarnyi is far from the first big-money link at Tottenham this summer, but with the North Londoners seemingly increasingly confident of keeping Romero, it makes sense for them to spend the money elsewhere instead.
They already have two international quality centre halves within their ranks, and while the Bournemouth man would provide another strong option, it’s unlikely that Thomas Frank would alter his system to account for all three.
With that in mind, there are other areas of the squad that could still use a boost ahead of the opening day of the campaign.
If Levy is adamant that he has the money to spend, then the fee that had been set aside for Zabarnyi could easily be invested across two or three positions elsewhere in the team.