Napoli interested in Spurs defender

According to a report from Ryan Taylor, Serie A giants Napoli are among a “number of Italian clubs” interested in Tottenham Hotspur central defender Radu Dragusin.

However, he also states that the defender will not be looking to leave the club in January, despite his agent saying earlier in the year that his client would look to leave the club, should he not become a regular fixture in the starting XI.

Napoli are of course managed by Antonio Conte, who is known for his love of Premier League players. At Inter Milan he signed the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Christian Eriksen, and Ashley Young.

At Napoli he has once again signed Lukaku, as well as the likes of Scott McTominay and Billy Gilmour. Based on this report, Dragusin is another Premier League player that the 55-year old is interested in. His previous Serie A experience no doubt helps his case too.

The 22-year old has struggled for game time in his time in North London so far, and in one of the games he did get an opportunity to start in - he received a red card after just seven minutes of play.

He has in that time, however, shown for the Romanian national team, both at the European Championships, and in the recent international break, that is he is a top player and it is simply that Ange prefers his partnership of van de Ven and Romero.

With the well documented intense schedule, as well as the high octane style of play under manager Ange Postecoglu, there is enough game time to go around for everyone and there is no doubt that Dragusin will get opportunities over the season - it is down to him whether or not he manages to make the most of them on those occasions.

His next start could come as recently as Thursday, where Spurs host AZ Alkmaar. There are going to be tougher tests to come in the Europa League, where there could be less rotation, so you feel like this will be an opportunity for the likes of Dragusin, Archie Gray, Pape Matar Sarr and co.

Finally, it is worth remembering that van de Ven missed a large chunk of last season through injury, and Romero has proven to be injury prone in the past, so there could be opportunities from Dragusin as a result of that, too.

Either way, it is very important for Spurs to keep hold of his services in the winter.