Gossip: ‘Obsessed’ Levy eyes three huge loans; Arsenal’s £90m plan

Matt Stead

Daniel Levy is ‘obsessed’ with bringing Gareth Bale back to Tottenham. But it is unclear whether Dele Alli will be involved.

 

LOAN SURVIVOR
Not content with negotiating just the two transfers and the various complications that come with them, Daniel Levy is setting himself extra homework just to prove how adept he is at this transfer lark. He will still hand it in a couple of minutes before the deadline after changing everything, but good on him for keeping up the pretence.

The Daily Telegraph report that the idea of essentially trading Gareth Bale for Dele Alli on respective loans has been discussed. Real Madrid would pay half the wages of the former and cover the entire earnings of the latter, leaving Tottenham covering about £150,000 a week in all.

That is merely mentioned as ‘one proposal’ – it is not known whether Levy will actually go for it – but he is said to be ‘obsessed’ with the idea of bringing Bale back to north London. The player, for what it’s worth, would be tempted by ‘the emotional pull of returning’ himself.

Levy would seek assurances that Jose Mourinho ‘was on board’ with the deal before sanctioning it, which is awfully nice of him. But the Daily Mail describe Tottenham as feeling as though they are ‘in pole position’ ahead of Manchester United.

One of our writers will be happy.

 

DELE FISH
The Times are here to ruin everyone’s fun by pointing out that while ‘the possibility’ of Alli moving to Spain ‘was raised during discussions,’ Real ‘do not want’ him because of a desire to get a better control over their spiralling wage bill.

Spoilsports. Although he’ll never hit those breakthrough heights again.

La Liga’s champions are also ‘unwilling to subsidise Bale’s wages during any loan spell’, which contradicts pretty much every other report and would surely rule Tottenham out of the running. They – and indeed no other Premier League club – are not going to hand £600,000 a week to any player.

It is added that Mourinho ‘would welcome the addition of Bale’ and ‘is considering’ a loan move for Andrea Belotti of Torino. So much for them bidding €50m.

 

PARTEY TIME
Arsenal will not simply watch their north London rivals from afar in awe. They intend to follow Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s new contract with a couple more statements.

The names should come as no surprise as the Daily Mirror report Thomas Partey and Houssem Aouar to be their primary midfield targets. Atletico Madrid ‘want in excess of £50m’ for the former; Lyon value the latter at ‘more than £40m’.

But Arsenal’s ‘business is not over’ and any money generated through sales could be reinvested into those signings. Emiliano Martinez should raise around £20m, while Sead Kolasinac, Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira ‘will be allowed to leave’.

Hector Bellerin could also be offloaded even if Arsenal ‘do not want to lose’ him. A big PSG offer, combined with an inability to sell some of those unwanted players, mean it ‘could still happen’.