Report: Tottenham wants €50m purchase clause in a Dele to PSG loan

By now we know that the rumors linking Dele with a move from Tottenham Hotspur to PSG aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. While the news coming out of Spurs suggests that a move to rejoin Mauricio Pochettino in Paris is a non-starter, on loan or otherwise, that’s not going to stop the rumors from flying until the window closes at the end of the month.

The French media is predictably speculating endlessly and will for the foreseeable future. Yesterday, Le Parisienne posted a story (£) on their website claiming that Dele is still the top target for Pochettino and Leonardo, but that Daniel Levy is not willing to strike a deal on a loan unless there’s a hefty and mandatory purchase clause.

The article’s in French, but here’s a Google translation of the requisite paragraph.

According to a market player, an outright loan would be unthinkable. The club currently fifth in the Premier League wants to ensure an inflow of money with a transfer or a loan with a compulsory and non-optional purchase option. Specialized sites (CIES, Transfermarkt) estimate Dele Alli from 30 to 40 million euros maximum. According to our information, Tottenham would hope for at least 50 million euros. Such a price seems unattainable for PSG, whose finances are watched like milk on fire. Even more for a player with a profile similar to Julian Draxler or Rafinha.

Charming translated French idioms aside (“watched like milk on fire” is great), this does seem like a pretty standard move out of the Daniel Levy playbook. Dele isn’t getting games. It’s clear that Jose Mourinho doesn’t want him around, and although reports from Spurs’ side are saying that Dele hasn’t burned any bridges or fallen out with anyone, he’s pretty desperate for minutes so he can make the England Euros squad, assuming the Euros happen.

Putting in a €50m (£44.5m) obligatory purchase clause into the loan contract would guarantee that Spurs would get market rates for a player that Levy still rates very highly. It would mean that there’d be zero chance that Dele would ever suit up again for Spurs, but barring Levy rage-firing Mourinho this summer that doesn’t seem very likely anyway.

And that’s the crux of the issue: PSG, like other clubs, aren’t very liquid with their finances due to COVID. They’d rather do a loan. Spurs don’t want to give up a saleable asset, even one that’s being left off the bench for Gedson Fernandes, for nothing, even temporarily.

This has the sense of a long transfer stalemate, one that is almost certainly going to escalate into a SAGA before all is said and done. Stay tuned.