Tottenham are reportedly considering making a move to sign Boca Juniors midfielder Kevin Zenon but could face competition from Newcastle for his services.
Midfield is certainly an area Ange Postecoglou still wants to address come the January transfer window, having offloaded Tanguy Ndombele (released), Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (loan), Oliver Skipp and Giovani Lo Celso, while only Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall were added to the Australian’s engine room.
And now a fresh report from Spain suggests that the north London outfit are pushing to sign Zenon, with the 23-year-old having a £13million release clause in his contract.
Spanish outlet Fichajes states that Tottenham ‘determined’ to secure the player’s signature, although they might have to overcome strong opposition from St James’ Park to get their man.
In 34 appearances, the South American has made 11 goal contributions this season for Boca Juniors, scoring four goals and registering seven assists.
If he did arrive in north London, Zenon could be joined in the Spurs midfield by USA international Johnny Cardoso.
In selling Lo Celso back to Real Betis, Tottenham secured a deal to sign Cardoso in the future that can be triggered with a £21m (€25m / $27.7m) fee. However, The Telegraph reports that the window for Spurs’ option lasts for just two weeks during 2025, with other teams able to compete for him when it expires.
Adding both Cardoso and Zenon would bring even more young talent to Postecoglou’s midfield, although Tottenham fans have been ruing not seeing a more established name come in after a tough start to the season so far.
Zenon adaptability a plus point for Postecoglou
Zenon is a versatile midfielder as he can play in the engine room but is also comfortable playing out wide.
The Argentine is excellent technically, strong in tight areas, capable of making defence-splitting passes between the lines and can produce quality from set-pieces.
He is considered a shrewd bargain acquisition, if Tottenham do indeed make a concrete offer for his services in the January window.
Zenon has scored 10 goals in 143 career appearances, although he has only featured 28 times for Boca so far after joining them in January of this year.
The Argentina Under-23 international’s contract runs out in December 2028, which leaves Boca in a strong position if his release clause figure is not met going forward.
Barca target emerges for Tottenham as Romero fears grow
Another midfielder on the club’s radar, meanwhile, is reported to be Barcelona star Fermin Lopez after a report revealed they made an approach in the summer.
As revealed by Relevo, Tottenham were at the front of the queue for Lopez this summer after making an approach to Barca.
However, Lopez’s current club closed the door by pointing to the player’s €400m (£337.8m/$443.3m) release clause, which was obviously never expected to be activated.
And Barcelona are now actitvely working on upgrading Lopez’s contract to end Tottenham’s hopes once and for all.
In other Totttenham news, as the club continue to weigh up the players they can try and bring in next, a damaging report suggests they could end up losing Cristian Romero to Real Madrid.
Transfer insider Ekrem Konur has stated that Real are ‘planning to make a move’ for the Argentine centre-back in January and that they have been given confidence that they can get him.
That’s as Romero is said to be ‘willing to join’ the Spanish giants if an offer comes his way.
Midfield conundrum causing problems for Postecoglou
There is a growing feeling that Postecoglou was let down over the summer by Tottenham not making a move to sign a world class central midfielder capable of running games.
Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall are top young talents who are likely to have successful careers, but that is in the future and it’s painfully obvious that Spurs are missing a midfield general in a team full of talented individuals.
Yves Bissouma has been nothing like the player he was at Brighton, while Rodrigo Bentancur is still not at his best after his ACL injury in early 2023.
Pape Sarr remains another promising talent but while Postecoglou playing Dejan Kulusevski and James Maddison centrally alongside Bentancur against Arsenal worked well in possession, without it Tottenham were so vulnerable to the transition and need to provide more cover for the over-worked central defensive pairing of Romero and Micky van de Ven.
Now might be the time to give Gray his chance to show the qualities he did in pre-season and prove why he was a generational talent at Leeds United.
Playing the England Under-21 alongside Bentancur would give more of a solid base for Spurs to work from and allow the attacking players to do their thing without making life a nightmare for the back two when the ball is lost.