Hot is cold! Down is up! Everton making huge last-minute bid for Lamela!

Yesterday evening, we were following a developing story that Olympic Marseille in Ligue 1 had made a push to take Tottenham Hotspur winger Erik Lamela on loan for the season. With interest being shown as well by Inter Milan in Serie A, it would appear that there was enough interest drummed up by other clubs that Lamela could find a good landing spot away from the Premier League for a season or even permanently.

The deal to Marseille looked to be a sure thing, but with 20 minutes to go in the French window, word came out that Tottenham put a stop to the deal. Not long after the window closed, reports came out that Mauricio Pochettino halted the deal primarily because he wanted a replacement in place before letting the Argentine go.

Today, however, Le10 Sport is stating that a late bid made by an unknown Premier League club was made in the neighborhood of €25m (£18.3m) that would kill the loan deal, especially since it seems that there was little to no fee involved to send Lamela to France.

Désireux de faire venir l’attaquant de West Bromwich Albion, Saido Berahino, Tottenham n’est pas parvenu à conclure le deal. En parallèle, les dirigeants londoniens ont reçu une offre d’Everton à hauteur de 25 millions d’euros pour Lamela. Une offre plus séduisante que celle de l’OM, qui était un prêt avec option d’achat. Malgré ce constat, Lamela se dirigeait bel et bien vers l’OM avant la volte-face de Pochettino. Le joueur sera-t-il encore un joueur de Tottenham ce mardi soir ?

If you put that into the Google machine, the story says that Everton is apparently the club that made the bid. If it sounds a little crazy, let's talk about why it isn't.

First, Roberto Martinez has said earlier in the window that he needs three players before the window closes, one of them being a playmaker to fit in the #10 role for his attack. Lamela, of course, started out his career as a #10 at Club Atlético River Plate, so he is not foreign to the role. It was only when he moved to AS Roma that he became more of a winger. Everton already has on the right Kevin Mirallas and Aiden McGeady, though McGeady may be on the move himself. The Toffees also have Gerard Deulofeu who they signed permanently after a loan spell, so the right side is pretty full.

Second, if the rumor is true and this late bid was made, Spurs would absolutely want to pump the brakes and try to re-coup as much money as they can on Lamela. It's logical.

The story itself isn't getting much steam in the English media, though that could change. Le10 Sport isn't the worst of sources, but this may end up being nothing more than an assumption by the French outlet. For now, it's good enough to consider on Deadline Day as a possibility.