DiMarzio: AC Milan cooling on Tanganga, Reguilon

Now that Tottenham is mostly out of acquisition mode and into offload mode, you’d think that we’d be seeing lots of players on the way out the door. That’s proving to be a little more difficult than maybe we all expected, mostly because, unlike Spurs, a lot of European clubs just don’t have a lot of money right now (or like Barcelona are taking out shady payday loans to balance their budget).

So, it perhaps shouldn’t be too surprising to see some of the reported links for some players on the fringes of Antonio Conte’s squad start to fall apart with a month left to go in the window. Yesterday, Gianluca DiMarzio suggested in an article on his website that one of the most visible potential transfers might be falling apart, with AC Milan reportedly cooling their interest in central defender Japhet Tanganga and left back Sergio Reguilon.

There’s not much to the rumor. The article is actually about Renato Sanches, whom Milan is now looking at signing this summer, and at the end is a statement that suggests that Sanches, who can play both as a midfielder and defender, is being considered as a more flexible alternative to both Tanganga and Reguilon.

Here’s the relevant passage, in Italian and run through Google Translate:

[Sanches is] a flexible defender, able to play both in the center and as a full-back. In fact, Milan had the option of buying Tanganga as a CB and Reguilon as a left-back, but in the end they decided to turn to the the former member of Borussia Dortmund’s 1996 class.

Well, that’s not great, is it? DiMarzio is absolutely one of the Italian football journalists that you should be paying attention to — he doesn’t get everything right (nobody does) but he’s absolutely one of the most reliable Italian media sources, especially when it comes to the two Milan clubs.

Reguilon’s prior links to Milan were more tenuous than Tanganga’s, and Reggie still has a number of links to other clubs (including, hilariously, broke-boys Barcelona). But Tanganga’s strongest link away from Spurs was to Milan, so this is a setback for him and for Spurs if they were actively trying to offload him.

That doesn’t mean that neither player is going to be shifted. I think both of them absolutely are, even if it’s just somewhere on loan. And it’s also important to note that Sanches is linked with PSG so if he decides to go elsewhere then Milan might come back in for Tanganga later in the window.

But if DiMarzio is right, it’s a bummer, especially if Spurs are trying to shift a few players ahead of making one or two more last minute summer acquisitions.