It is being reported in Italy that Arsenal and Tottenham are going head to head in the battle to sign Roma midfielder Lorenzo Pellegrini.
Pellegrini has been in high demand ever since Roma failed to qualify for next seasons Champions League and according to Italian football journalist Nicolo Schira, both AC Milan and Inter Milan are reportedly very keen on signing the 22-year-old, however, Roma do not want to sell to a rival and that gives both Tottenham and us a significant advantage.
In fact, Schira claims that both ourselves and Spurs have already tabled offers with Pellegrini’s agent.
“The Roma works on the renewal of Lorenzo Pellegrini: objective to remove the 30 million clause (payable in 2 tranches of 15) on the plate also the role of vice-captain,” Schira wrote on Twitter.
“Meanwhile, his agent – after calls from Inter and Milan – received proposals from Arsenal and Tottenham.”
Well, either Schira is lying or we have actually put forward a proposal and I am inclined to believe him, it would be too risky for his reputation to just lie like that.
Of course, he may have been misled and not intentionally be telling an untruth but he will have done his due diligence before going public with such a bold statement.
I do not know too much about the player but having watched a couple of videos of him he does look tasty.
It will be interesting to see if this particular piece of speculation gains traction over the next few days.
The fee is not outrageous, especially if it can be paid in two tranches of 15 Million Euro’s, though lack of Champions League football could be a huge obstacle.