Spurs suffer transfer blow as centre-back target’s agent confirms ‘he will happily remain’

Tottenham have suffered a blow in their pursuit of Inter centre-back Alessandro Bastoni with the players agent confirm he will happily remain in Italy.

The defender worked with Spurs boss Antonio Conte when the Italian was in charge of the Serie A giants up until last summer.

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Conte has already brought in one is former Inter stars with the singing of Croatian Ivan Perisic on a free transfer being confirmed earlier this week.

And Bastoni looked to be next on the list for Conte as he continue his summer rebuild of the squad.

The 23-year-old shone for Inter again last season, impressing on the left of a back three, something that would suit the way that Conte plays at Spurs.

Welsh defender Ben Davies has impressed playing that role ever since Conte arrived in north-London but it would appear that Conte is looking to strengthen that area this summer.

However, they have now suffered a blow in thier attempt to get Bastoni with the players agent confirming he will happily remain at Inter.

Speaking to SportItalia (quotes via the Evening Standard), agent Tullio Tinti said: “He is certainly a big fan of the team he plays for, so he will happily remain at Inter.

“However, he is also a professional. This is football and he has to adjust.

“It’s clear he is very happy to play for Inter and feels this jersey like a tattoo on his skin.”

RB Leipzig defender Josko Gvardiol is a possible alternative, but he has also been linked to Chelsea in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, Spurs striker Harry Kane is hoping to use his strong end to the domestic season to help England in their Nations League fixtures.

“Whenever you finish strongly with your club there is always a freer mind going into the international stage,” he said.

“Obviously, last summer we had a major European competition, a large tournament. So of course you have different feelings towards that than maybe you would towards the Nations League games.

“It was a fantastic summer last year in terms of the tournament. It ended obviously very disappointingly, but going into these games I feel confident, I feel free.

“We had a good finish as a team towards the end of the season and I had a good season personally, which is always great.

“So I am looking forward to carrying that on into these games. Then, as I touched on earlier, getting a nice break over the summer.”