Tottenham make opening bid for Lyon’s Ndombele

Tottenham are thought to have made an opening bid for Lyon’s star creative defensive midfielder Tanguy Ndombele in order to get ahead of their competition.

Lyon’s Tanguy Ndombele is one of the hottest properties on the transfer market this summer.  His supreme passing ability, vision, athleticism and work rate will make him one of the most useful players in any side.  The fact that he has been compared in equal parts to both N’Golo Kante and Miralem Pjanic describes exactly the level of talent we’re talking about.

It makes sense, then, that Lyon are holding out for an excessive fee for the central midfielder.  Lyon’s president Aulas is one of the best negotiators in Europe, in essence is the Ligue 1 equivalent of Spurs’ Mr. Daniel Levy.  The current fee that Lyon are asking for Tanguy Ndombele is rumored to be £88 million.

Speculation puts Spurs’ initial bid at between £30 and £40 million.

That number simply won’t be paid by anyone.  It is rumored that Juventus are also milling about the Ndombele waiting room, but they, like Spurs, have scoffed at that asking price.  With Juventus in the market for several players this summer in their bid to help get Cristiano Ronaldo to one last Champions League final trophy, the Northern Italian club are spending their money cautiously.  The fact they may set a Serie A record for Lazio’s Milinkovic-Savic could leave them priced out of the battle for the Lyon star.

That is good news for Spurs, who can negotiate without the fear that another club could steal Ndombele from under their nose.  He would be a perfect addition to the Spurs engine room and would free up other players to make more of an impression in the attacking third.  In constantly possessing a threat to spring an attack from deep, as well as doing more than his share of defensive duty, there’s a good chance that Ndombele will be the signing of the window for whoever secures his signature.

Tottenham will want to make this signing as soon as possible to allow Pochettino ample time to plan and get a full pre-season in with his players.  The only issue with Levy’s stewardship of the club so far has been his reluctance to make signings early.  He is often able to get a good deal across the line on the last day of the window but that handicaps his manager, denying ample training and planning time for important and talented members of the team.

Spurs are no longer the small team who are pinching pennies to try and scrap their way to the top. They’re in with the giants and need to put football first.  Signing Ndombele and doing so as soon as possible would be the best move for the club . The fact Spurs, with the window barely underway, have already begun the bidding process on a couple of players is an extremely promising sign of things to come.