Ivan Perisic is Tottenham’s fifth signing from Italy since Fabio Paratici arrived at the club less than a year ago, so who could be the next Serie A star to move to north London?
Paratici signed with Tottenham after 11 years with Juventus and has brought his knowledge of Serie A to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where he has already bought five new players from Italy.
He signed Cristian Romero from Atalanta and Pierluigi Gollini on loan, also from La Dea, last summer before Antonio Conte was appointed as head coach at the start of November, replacing Nuno Espirito Santo.
Two more Serie A stars joined Tottenham after Conte’s appointment with Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur signing with the Premier League side in January. Bentancur moved to Spurs on a permanent €25 million deal, including add-ons, while the Sweden international completed an initial loan move with an obligation to buy.
Perisic has now joined Tottenham from Inter on a free transfer, but Paratici and Conte’s chase in Serie A is not over.
Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni is also on Tottenham’s radar, but the Serie A giants want at least €60m to sell the Italy international, who is also wanted by Manchester United and City. His teammate Stefan de Vrij is also being monitored by Spurs and could leave the Stadio Meazza at a lower price.
Tuttosport reported in April that Torino’s Wilfried Singo and Gleison Bremer are on Paratici’s agenda too, with the former Juventus director having already spoken to the Granata about both players.
Paratici is an admirer of Juventus midfielder Weston McKennie who he brought to Turin in 2020 on an initial loan deal with an option to buy from Schalke 04. The Old Lady will be listening to offers for the USMNT international in the summer but are unlikely to sell for less than €30m.
Paulo Dybala, on the other hand, has never been a concrete transfer target for the north Londoners and the same goes for Inter defender Milan Skriniar who wants to extend his contract with the Nerazzurri.
Paratici paying Juventus for Vlahovic funds and now taking Inter`s best player of the season! What else proof you want that he is still working for Juventus? He is dismantling Inter!
De Vrij is probably up next.
Paratici took best player of Serie A away from Inter, he is still working for Juventus.
Next? Probably De Vrij.
Perisic did well last season, but with Gosens there now Inter probably won’t miss him too much.
Bentancur was average for a long time in Serie A, while Kulusevski was great at Parma but average at Juve. That may be down to the dinosaur managing him, though.
Gollini was never anything special.
The real loss to Serie A was Juve being dumb enough to let Romero out of their grasp. He could have been their CB for 10+ years, but as with a lot of their decisions in recent years, they got that one wrong.
Singo would be a loss to the league too, but McKennie less so.
If Inter sell Bastoni, then they’re going nowhere but downhill.
Of course Conte and Paratici are taking talent from Serie A. They are familiar with the talent and know who can transition to EPL. With the EPL TV deal money, they can easily off larger wages then a Serie A club. I hope Conte gets everything he needs and does the impossible winning a trophy for Spurs. Now if they can fund Juventus transfer window the better.