Tottenham interested in Djibril Sidibe, but Monaco doesn’t want to sell

Tottenham Hotspur are in the market for a new right back. Monaco has a very good one in Djibril Sidibe, and is planning to sell off a lot of the good players that helped take them to the Champions League semifinals. And, it sounds like he might be interested in going. Sounds like a match made in heaven, right?

Maybe not so much. Le 10 Sport, a French sports daily, has the honor of being the first major source to link Spurs with the French international, but states that despite the Champions League semifinalists likely selling off their prized assets and retooling this summer, they aren’t interested in selling Sidibe. Monaco have already sold off Bernardo Silva to Manchester City, Kylian Mbappe is almost certainly heading out for likely a world record fee, defensive midfielder Tiémoué Bakayoko is strongly linked to Chelsea, and of course, Tottenham is one of a couple of clubs (including Arsenal) closely tied to the services of Thomas Lemar.

That’s a LOT of turnover for a club, even a selling club like Monaco, and Le 10 suggest that Monaco are ready to draw the line at selling Sidibe, despite the player having interest in joining his international captain Hugo Lloris at Spurs. Sidibe has been amazing at Monaco this season and would be an excellent fit with Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham -- he’s an attacking full back that is adept at cutting inside and supporting the attack. He and Lemar scored both of Monaco’s goals in their 2-1 Champions League win over Spurs at the Stade Louis II this past season. I’d take him in a heartbeat.

The other problem with this rumor is that Le 10 suggests that Spurs have yet to make a formal approach, nor does it say what it might take to pry him out of Monaco (which would likely be a considerable fee). This makes sense if Spurs are still deciding whether to offload Kyle Walker, and if Sidibe is just a name on a list of potential replacements right now. So don’t get too excited just yet.

For me, though, I don’t care. Spurs are still getting linked to a metric ton of players in the transfer window, as they do every offseason, but for the first time it’s an entirely higher class of player. That feels pretty good. Sidibe is the kind of player that Spurs should be linked to in the transfer window after two consecutive Premier League title chases. I’m glad to see Djibril here, even if the link is only speculative for now, and if Spurs could land both Lemar and Sidibe in the same window, that would be some spectacular business.