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This post is part of a deadline morning series on potential Tottenham transfers.You can find all of the posts in the series right here, as well as the initial post explaining this series right here.
Once again, it's time to dive into the pipe dream realm of this series. And as far as pipe dream acquisitions go, Mattia Destro isn't a ridiculously unrealistic one. He's been linked to a move away from Roma for roughly £18m, which isn't ridiculous. His wages would be on the higher end of our wage scale, but much lower than Roberto Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor's.
But no one knows if Roma are actually willing to sell Destro for any kind of reasonable price (they say he's not for sale), or if he wants to go to a team like Tottenham Hotspur, in a foreign country and not in the Champions League. It's possible that he could just turn us down point blank even if we did have a bid accepted.
That shouldn't stop you from dreaming a somewhat realistic dream, though.
Quick bio: Destro couldn't quite hack it as a youngster at Genoa, so they sent him to a smaller club, Siena. There, he starred, so they sold half his rights to Roma with an option to buy the rest for a good chunk of change. Destro's been impressive when healthy recently -- he was one of the most efficient scorers in Europe last season -- but he has pretty constant injury problems. He's probably best as a striker, but also very good wide left.
Age: 23
Likelihood he's transfered today: Small. Roma have changed their tune and started saying that he is absolutely not for sale.
Potential suitors: Previously, Chelsea were in for him, but they just signed Loic Remy. It seems extremely unlikely that they'd buy Destro too. If Juventus actually do sell Arturo Vidal, they'll have some money to burn, and could burn quite a bit of it on Destro. Other than that, his possible destinations aren't obvious.
Price if he's sold: Somewhere from £17-22m
Are Spurs the front-runners?: If he's actually available? Maybe. Though, in that Candyland Vidal scenario, Juventus would be.
The verdict - Could he be a Spurs player on September 2?: No. Roma don't need the money after selling Mehdi Benatia and replacing him with Kostas Manolas at a much cheaper price. When they say he's not for sale, they're probably not bluffing.