Bat Country: Rumor mill somehow links Spurs to Benfica Fullback

We’re under two weeks away from the January transfer window opening up, which means we’ll hear every rumor possible and little to no movement, as is tradition with Tottenham Hotspur mid-season. While Spurs have made moves in the past, usually the belief is that many of the rumors that appear are more for the summer window and what we’ll see then. Bat Country, however, knows no boundaries to time or stupidity, and today’s rumor checks all the boxes.

We’ll start going down the rabbit hole today with A Bola, and while that eerily could be confused with the deadly disease, it’s translation to English is obviously The Ball.

Álex Grimaldo, lateral-esquerdo do Benfica, está sinalizado pelo Tottenham, avançou a imprensa inglesa, prevenindo a possibilidade de Danny Rose, lateral de 27 anos, ser vendido na janela de mercado de janeiro.

Grimaldo, de 22 anos, tem sido notícia por estar a ser observado por vários clubes europeus. Além do Tottenham, também o Nápoles o colocou na lista de potenciais reforços, neste caso para substituir Faouzi Ghoulam, que se lesionou com gravidade num joelho.

A SAD encarnada tem feito saber que não recebeu qualquer proposta oficial. Com Eliseu de saída, é pouco provável que as águias aceitem propostas pelo espanhol.

Google translate absolutely butchers this site, but the long and the short of it is that apparently Tottenham have “signaled” to Grimaldo that they’re interested, whatever that means. This article came by way of aggregator HITC, who argued that Spurs shouldn’t be looking at Grimaldo and should spend their efforts and money on Fulham fullback Ryan Sessegnon.

In a recent report from Portuguese newspaper A Bola, it was claimed that Tottenham Hotspur are considering a move for left-back Alejandro Grimaldo, with Spurs potentially losing Danny Rose sooner rather than later.

However, if the England international does move on, there is a clear winner in terms of his long-term replacement, and it is not 22-year-old Grimaldo.

With Calcio Mercato claiming it will take an offer of £35million to secure the Benfica full-back, Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy should step away and focus all his attention on bringing Ryan Sessegnon to North London.

This is a whole lot of no sh*t, Sherlock writing here, but that link in the third paragraph is interested. Calcio Mercato, another one of Bat Country’s regular hitmen, has more on this, right? Well....sort of.

Juventus and Liverpool have been informed by Benfica that they are welcome to sign Spanish left full-back Alejandro Grimaldo, born in 1995 but they will have to dig deep into their wallets in order to do so.

Calciomercato can reveal that the reigning Portuguese champions have informed all interested clbs that they will not even consider selling the player for any less than €40 million.

Uh...okay? So the reason to link to that article is just saying that Benfica want a lot of money for a solid, pacey fullback. Again, a whole lot of nothing here.

Look, the one thing I agree on with this ridiculous chain of articles is that I’d rather Spurs spend £10m-£15m on Sessegnon, loan him back to Fulham and if that time comes where Danny Rose wants out like Kyle Walker did, then you’re covered. Ben Davies has shown to be a more than capable player in this squad and Sessegnon, while obviously still very young, is showing that there may not be a ceiling in sight with him.

Grimaldo would obviously be a more than capable replacement for Danny Rose if he were to leave, and while the rumor price of Rose’s potential transfer could rival that of Kyle Walker last summer, we know how Daniel Levy operates. He isn’t about to blow most of Rose’s transfer to bring in another player if both he and Pochettino think Sessegnon can do the job. This is also dismissing the fact that none of these articles have any sort of solid link or quotes from the player or the club. It certainly won’t happen in January, and neither will it happen in the summer.