Report: Tottenham not actively negotiating for Lucas Moura

Let’s talk a little about Lucas Moura. The internet was abuzz this morning regarding a story that appeared in Thursday’s L’Equipe, which suggested that Tottenham Hotspur had entered into negotiations with PSG for the transfer of the Brazilian winger during the open January window.

In truth, there’s not much in this article that we didn’t already know about Lucas’ situation at the French champions. In short, Lucas has been shoved out of the side by Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, and is ready to leave. He also would be very open to a move to England, and listed Tottenham as one of the clubs that would interest him.

Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly tracking him, but are most interested in obtaining him on a loan. PSG, who need some serious liquidity to keep from running afoul of Financial Fair Play regulations, want to sell him outright, and are shopping him around for €30m (£26.5m).

That’s what’s been reported. And in truth, the only new tidbit of information is that, according to L’Equipe, Spurs are now in negotiations with PSG. But are they really? Here’s the pertinent sentence, in French.

Tottenham a entamé des démarches en ce sens ces dernières heures et ses liens récents avec les dirigeants parisiens pourraient faciliter les discussions.

And here’s the translation, courtesy of Google:

Tottenham has taken steps in this direction in recent hours and its recent links with Parisian leaders could facilitate discussions.

That’s... not the same thing as “Spurs are negotiating with PSG for Lucas’ transfer.” That seems to imply more that Tottenham’s past dealings with PSG concerning the Serge Aurier transfer this summer could help smooth the way if they wanted to sign Lucas. And indeed, ESPN Tottenham correspondent (and friend of the blog) Dan Kilpatrick tried to throw cold water on the whole thing early this morning.

I don’t think I’m the only Tottenham fan who would welcome Lucas with open arms. He’s incredibly fast, skilled, has a proven record of scoring goals, and his only crime is not being as good as Neymar and Mbappe at a club that could win the Champions League.

That said, it might be time to slow our roll here a bit. I’m still not convinced that Spurs are going to sign ANYONE in this window — just like we didn’t sign anyone in the January window last year. That’s not to say that Lucas won’t be wearing Lilywhite by the end of the month... just that at the moment it doesn’t seem quite as likely.