Spurs battle Roma for 20-goal striker prodigy

Spurs have apparently entered the race to sign the Belgian Jupiler League's top scorer, Aleksandar Mitrović. Only 20 years old, Mitrović bagged 20 goals and 4 assists in about 3300 minutes of league play for Anderlecht last year. Which is awesome. The year before he had 16 and 6 in about 2500 minutes, so this isn't just a one-off season. It's also the Belgian league, so obviously it's a question how well those numbers will translate to the Premier League, but he looked really good in the Champions League this year too, scoring against both Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund.

He's been linked to Roma since the season ended, and a few years ago Arsenal were heavily rumored to be interested in signing him. Now Tottenham seem to have decided they want in on the action.

So how likely is this to happen? The Daily Star cites Sportitalia as the source, and lists an £8m asking price. But lo and behold, the story is nowhere on Sportitalia's site. The actual source seems to be Sportitalia presenter Alfredo Pedulla, and the rumor is listed as an exclusive on his own site, and according to him the striker is actually available for €16m (or £11.4m).

Pedulla isn't as good as Gianluca di Marzio, but he's also not Tancredi Palmeri. He's roughly equivalent to a rumor in the Daily Mail or the Mirror. Which ain't great, but he's unlikely to have just fabricated the story out of whole cloth.

If Pedulla's onto something, £11.4m for a young player as accomplished as Mitrović would be a steal. We'll see how real our interest actually is, or if this is just nonsense to get Roma to up their bid. Keep your fingers crossed, but don't get too excited just yet.