Tottenham have “agreement in principle” with Chinese club for Mousa Dembele

The early signs were that Mousa Dembele was set to leave Tottenham Hotspur this summer and probably for Serie A. Reports have linked Moose with Juventus, Napoli, and Inter Milan as he seeks to end his career away from the Premier League, and have also suggested that Dembele’s agents were recently in Italy to begin talks with a few clubs while the player is in Russia for the World Cup.

But those reports might be premature. Two French outlets — France Football and radio station RMC — are now reporting that Tottenham has reached an “agreement in principle” with an unknown Chinese club for Dembele’s sale, and that Spurs would rather he head off to the Far East for the next stage of his career. This confirms reports from months ago that stated that Dembele had interest from the Chinese Super League, but those rumors had gone quiet recently.

This sets up a really interesting decision, and Dembele’s next destination could come down to the what he wants. It makes a lot of sense that Spurs would want to sell Moose to China — they are asking for about £30m for him, which is higher than most Serie A teams are willing to spend for a 30-year old midfielder, but probably well within the budgets of a good number of Chinese teams. And in fact, RMC is stating that’s exactly the size of the bid coming from the Chinese club.

However, it sounds like Moose would prefer to go to Italy, with Juventus very high on his list. For good reason! Juventus are an outstanding side, and Moose would fit very well into their midfield. But none of the Italian sides have made an offer.

If all else is equal, I’d kind of like to see Moose in Serie A because I like Moose and want to see him do well. On the other hand, getting £30m for him would be amazing and I wouldn’t blame Spurs one bit for that either. The only sad bit is that it sure looks like he’s gone, and no matter what when it happens I will cri evreytim.