Spurs and Brighton close to fee agreement for Yves Bissouma

Tottenham Hotspur have a lot of logs in the fire when it comes to transfer business. The Paratici Scattergun™ has been active, but this morning’s bullseye is going to raise a lot of eyebrows and ask a lot of questions.

The Guardian is reporting that Spurs are close to a fee agreement with Brighton & Hove Albion for midfielder Yves Bissouma. Gary Jacobs has said the fee could be around £25m while the man that never sleeps, Fabrizio Romano, says it’s going to be £22.5m, and the deal looks imminent.

Tottenham are close to making Brighton’s Yves Bissouma their third summer signing. Final details, including regarding add-ons, are being discussed but the midfielder is poised to move for about £22.5m.

Bissouma, a Mali international, has been with Brighton since 2018 and started 25 Premier League games in the 2021-22 season. The former Lille player, who will be 26 in August, was unavailable for six league matches because of suspension and the Africa Cup of Nations.

Tottenham have offered Bissouma a five-year deal and he is in line to follow Ivan Perisic and Fraser Forster, whose contracts are up at Internazionale and Southampton respectively, into the club.

Bissouma is one of the best young midfielders in the Premier League, and if Spurs get him for that fee, it could be one hell of a coup. The reason I’m not over the moon about this is because of the sexual assault investigation that’s been ongoing since last October. If you need a refresher, here’s the first reporting via Marca.

Released on bail the next day, Bissouma’s conditional release has been extended a few times and now it’s just a matter of whether or not investigators decide to pursue criminal charges against him. I’m not here to speculate on whether or not that happens, because conjecture is bad. While we have to wait for the facts, my first thought when I read this news today was that I hope the club knows what they’re doing. That is going to be up to Paratici, Daniel Levy, and anyone involved in the negotiations for the deal. Dustin will have an op-ed coming shortly that goes more in depth on this part of a possible deal, because it requires a deeper dive.

For now, we’ll wait to see what happens and if this gets over the line. I do ask you read Dustin’s piece once it’s posted, but we’ll keep you in the loop on the negotiations.