New developments in Tottenham's pursuit of Mario Götze as Liverpool pulls out of contention

If you thought the Mario Götze story was flimsy and was going to go away, you’re half right. It might still be a bit thin on details, but it’s certainly not going away any time soon. Bild, the German paper who first reported that Tottenham Hotspur had made contact with Götze over a possible summer transfer, has doubled down on their assertion, reporting that representatives from Spurs have met with Götze’s father twice during the European Championships to gauge whether Tottenham would be a good fit for his son.

Götze is almost certainly leaving Bayern this summer after refusing to sign a contract extension at Bayern. His contract expires in 2017.

There’s still not much to go on here, of course, but this is further evidence that contact has indeed been made. As previously stated, there are numerous obstacles in the way of Mario Götze putting on a lilywhite shirt next season, not least of which are his extremely high wages, but this does seem to be an actual thing that has happened and not just rampant media speculation.

Meanwhile, one of Spurs’ main competitors for Götze’s services is now out of the running. James Pearce in the Liverpool Echo is reporting that Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool™ have said they will not pursue Götze this summer, and are happy with their signing of Southampton’s Sadio Mane. Liverpool was expected to be a very attractive destination to Götze due to the presence of Klopp, his old manager at Dortmund.

Dortmund is the other competitor for Götze’s signature, but this too has problems, not least of which being that Super Mario has essentially burned his bridges to his old club after his 2013 transfer to Bayern Munich. A large segment of Dortmund fans have never forgiven him for leaving BVB.

Pearce also claims that Bayern are looking for a transfer fee of £20m, significantly less than the £31m they paid for him when they signed him from Dortmund.

Götze is 24 years old and would probably waltz into Tottenham’s starting 11. A pressing #10, he’s a player who could legitimately thrive in a high-octane, counter-pressing tactical system like what Mauricio Pochettino has implemented at Spurs.

He’s had a couple of poor seasons under Pep Guardiola at Bayern, but some have suggested that Götze’s struggles with the German champions had as much to with Pep misusing him and his skill set as it did with Götze playing poorly. Götze is also coming off of a season where he lost 15 games to injury but is healthy again and ready for a change in scenery.

I’m not telling Spurs fans to get excited yet. But it’s pretty hard for me not to get excited about the possibility of this happening. We’ll be monitoring this story as closely as we possibly can.