Galatasaray and Fiorentina set to battle for this marginalized Tottenham player

Vlad Chiriches, who joined Tottenham Hotspur as part of the 2013 football version of Shop Til You Drop, looks to be on his way out the door. We've known that he's been on the chopping block for awhile now, but the destination has always been the answer that has escaped us. AS Roma had shown some interest in the past to the point that it appeared a transfer fee was close to being agreed upon, only for the deal to fall apart because Spurs had almost no depth on the back line. Roma may still be out there, somewhere, still plotting a bid, but the names at the forefront include one you may be a tad surprised about.

The Telegraph is reporting that Galatasaray have shown enough interest where they are putting in a bid for a reported £5m for the defender, but it would appear that the surprise club to show interest is Fiorentina.

Galatasaray and Fiorentina are both interested in signing central defender Chiriches, who was one of the seven Spurs players signed with the Gareth Bale money in 2013. Of those seven players, midfielders Paulinho and Etienne Capoue have already been sold this summer, while striker Roberto Soldado has also been made available.

Galatasary are thought to be ready to bid around £5million on Chiriches, who cost Spurs £8.5m from Steaua Bucharest, while Fiorentina have targeted the Romanian to replace Stefan Savic, who has joined Atletico Madrid.

Should, as expected, Chiriches complete a move to either Galatasaray or Fiorentina, and Soldado finds a new club, then the survivors of the magnificent seven will be record signing Erik Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Nacer Chadli.

As noted above, Spurs would be taking a loss on the Romanian international, but that seems to be a moot point.  While Vlad is still only 25 years old, we are not going to be as lucky as we were with Benjamin Stambouli and have a European giant come calling to give us an unexpected profit on a player that wasn't getting playing time, especially one that only made 10 league appearances last season.

The curious team in this, Fiorentina, may be doing this just to get under Roma's skin because of their past interest. It seems odd for the Serie A club to be involved, given they have a small battalion listed as defenders on their roster.  Either way, it works somewhat to the advantage of the club as any kind of competition can net a little extra money.

Right now, it would appear that Vlad is out the door somewhere, and my money is still on Galatasaray eventually taking the Romanian.  For now, we'll wait to see what else comes out of this, but the Summer blow out sale continues.