Tottenham payroll limits torpedo move for Real Madrid midfielder

Tottenham’s slow transfer window seems set to be bogged down in yet more details after the club were linked with Real Madrid midfielder Mateo Kovacic.

The Croatian currently resides on the periphery of Zinedine Zidane’s plans and it’s thought Real might be attempting to drum up interest from teams like Tottenham as a way to help finance a move for Monaco’s Kylian Mbappe.

So says the Evening Standard, at any rate. It’s a believable scenario, especially the part where the relatively low upper limit to their wages gets in the way of signing elite players.

Before we get to that, though, it’s worth taking a moment to acknowledge why Kovacic to Spurs seems like a good — perhaps even ideal — move.

Kovacic, for starters, is young at 23-years-old and already has plenty of experience in both Serie A and La Liga. Even if he’s not a mainstay in Real’s squad, he still managed 23 starts in all competitions last terms.

That marked a big improvement over his first season with Real last term, where he managed less than half as many starts and was in danger of looking washed up.

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What’s slowed Kovacic down at Real, and why Inter Milan were so willing to part with him in the summer of 2015, is also why he seems like a good fit for Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham.

The fact is that Kovacic is a bit hard to pin down tactically. He himself prefers central midfield, but he’s got the vision, range and talent on the ball to convincingly play in a more advanced number 10 role.

In the center of the park he uses those talents to better use, helping to orchestrate counter-attacks and generally become a reliable distributor of the ball. It is no surprise at all that he easily understudied all of Toni Kroos, Casemiro and former Tottenham playmaker Luka Modric this past season.

Were he to come to Spurs, he would be the natural successor to Mousa Dembélé in the center of the pitch alongside Victor Wanyama. Like the Belgian, he’s a talented dribbler, and he distribution could bring some of what Christian Eriksen offers to the side when he himself is deployed more centrally.

Now, after that brief journey behind rose-colored glasses, let’s explain why this deal is unlikely to happen.

Kovacic is currently on Real Madrid wages, and even as a member of the second string he is likely making much more per week than Spurs want to spend on even their best players. Maybe Real are willing to pad his wages, but that seems unlikely considering they are going to need to possibly break some records to afford Mbappe.

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So, at least for the moment, it’s safe to assume that Kovacic won’t be playing at Wembley next season.