Tottenham have made an offer to sign Nicolo Zaniolo on loan with a buy option, with Roma only keen on a permanent deal, according to Fabrizio Romano.
Roma only paid €4.5million to sign Zaniolo from Inter Milan in 2018.
He has turned out to be a superb signing and a very shrewd piece of business with his current value as high as €30m, as per Transfermarkt.
Zaniolo is a versatile player who can play through the middle as an attacking midfielder or false-nine, and as a right-winger.
He has 12 caps for Italy and has been linked with a move to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for a while now.
In Monday’s Transfer Gossip column, we relayed some information from Football Insider.
It has been reported that Tottenham have tried to sweeten the deal by offering Roma three players in a part-exchange deal.
Out-of-favour winger Bryan Gil is one player Antonio Conte is apparently willing to get rid of.
Roma boss Jose Mourinho – formerly of Tottenham – actually revealed that Zaniolo has asked to “leave the club”, but feels pretty confident the Italy forward will stay.
“Nicolo Zaniolo has asked to leave the club — but it’s not sure that it’s gonna happen,” Mourinho said.
“Current proposals are not enough. We only need a good proposal to let Zaniolo leave, and we’ve not received it. My feeling is that at the end, he will stay.”
Zaniolo has not had the best of seasons in front of goal. In 17 matches across all competitions, he has found the back of the net twice.
With five goal contributions in total, the 23-year-old actually has more yellow cards this term (six).
As Mourinho said, Roma are yet to receive a sufficient offer for Zaniolo.
According to Fabrizio Romano, Spurs have offered “a loan with a buy option”, though the Rome outfit “only want a permanent transfer for around €35-40million”.
Due to the difference in valuation, negotiations are not “advanced at the moment”, but things could change quickly as the player is “keen on the move” while Roma “want to find a solution to let Zaniolo leave”.
AC Milan are also interested in signing the former Inter youngster with talks between Spurs and the player’s representatives expected to continue this week.
Having “always protected” Zaniolo, Paolo Di Canio believes the player has “betrayed” Mourinho by asking to leave Roma.
“Zaniolo has a problem of constantly being distracted by what happens on social media,” Di Canio said. “Mourinho is right in feeling like he’s owed a bit of gratitude as he’s always protected Zaniolo no matter what.
“Mourinho is right to feel betrayed by Zaniolo after having protected him all the time.
“Mou wants to win, and wants to qualify for Champions League football, but he knows that if Zaniolo ends up staying, he will have to take care of that situation first.”
Spurs are yet to sign anyone this month but have been negotiating a deal to purchase Sporting right-wing-back Pedro Porro.
Porro has a £40m release clause, however, Daniel Levy is reluctant to cough up the cash despite the fee not being an extortionate one and Conte needing a new player in that position.
Spurs tried to sign Leandro Trossard – who signed for Arsenal last week – but their £12m bid was instantly rejected by Brighton.
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