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According to at least one French source, Tottenham Hotspur have begun the process of negotiating for French midfielder Tanguy Ndombele.
Tottenham's Daniel Levy has asked Lyon what they would think about a €40m bid for Tanguy N'Dombélé - OL have replied that the player is not for sale, according to L'Équipe.
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) June 17, 2018
The player is owned by Amiens, but he spent the year on loan at Lyon, who have the option to purchase him for €8m. That they can potentially turn around and sell him right away for €40m or more speaks to what a crazy market for football players we’re currently living in. Related: poor Amiens.
As we wrote about before, Ndombele would be an excellent fit in Tottenham’s midfield, and a quick poll of the Carty Free writers showed near unanimous support for signing him. That said, it might not be as easy as just plonking down €40m and calling it a day.
L'Équipe believe that Lyon would consider proposals from the €60m mark upwards - more follows tomorrow on Get French Football News.
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) June 17, 2018
€60m (£52m) is a LOT of money for a midfielder. Consider for a second that Liverpool were able to snag Naby Keita last summer for £48m and that was in a summer with a lot more clubs splashing the cash around. On the other hand, Spurs spent £42m on a very young Davinson Sanchez last summer, so maybe this is just the reality of the world we live in now.
Blah blah blah, silly season, French sports press, etc. But it’s plausible, and at this stage of the summer with the World Cup going on, “plausible” could be about as good as we’re going to get at the moment. One thing’s for sure: we’re going to need a new progressive central midfielder next season, and Ndombele is a pretty darned good one.