Tottenham defender set for year long loan to Italy

Vlad Chiriches was linked away from Tottenham Hotspur since the moment Spurs signed Kevin Wimmer, so it's no surprise that he's been connected to Fiorentina in Serie A. Now, respected Italian football journalist Gianluca DiMarzio is reporting that a deal is in place that will send Vlad the Lad to La Viola on a season-long loan.

Il difensore del Tottenham pronto a cambiare maglia, la Viola conta di chiudere tra lunedì e martedì. Le cifre? 1 milione di prestito più 5 di riscatto. Unica concorrente e antagonista, per ora, il Galatasaray, che offrirebbe al ragazzo un ingaggio alto, ma è lo stesso Chiriches a preferire la Serie A alla Super Lig turca. E allora viola pronti a chiudere, Chiriches sempre più vicino.

Plug that into the Google machine and you get a lot of bad translation, but the general gist is that Spurs will send Chiriches to Fiorentina for a loan fee of €1m, and an option to buy after next season of €5m. Galatasaray is still interested and would offer Vlad a higher salary, but he'd prefer to go to Italy over Turkey.

Vlad would be the replacement for Montenegran Stefan Savic, whom La Viola just sold to Atletico Madrid this summer. Italy could be a solid landing place for our hot-dog eating Romanian, as the slower pace of the league might benefit his skill set a little better than England.

DiMarzio is a pretty solid source when it comes to Italian transfers, so this looks like a pretty good bet. If it happens, it could happen soon. We'll keep an eye on things.