Spurs transfer news: Barcelona’s Andre Gomes to replace Mousa Dembele
Tottenham are also linked with Italian playmaker Bryan Cristante
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Barcelona are set to bin eight of their stars, claims The Sun, and Tottenham already have one of the rejects on their radar.
The man in question is Andre Gomes. The Daily Mirror claims that the Lilywhites want him as a replacement for Mousa Dembele.
The Portuguese international has failed to fire at the Camp Nou since joining from Valencia in the summer of 2016 in a £31m move. Now Gomes is about to be axed, along with seven of his teammates.
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According to the Sun, which takes its information from the Spanish outlet Sport.es, Paco Alcacer, Denis Suarez, Aleix Vidal, Rafinha, Munir El Haddadi and Gerard Deulofeu are all expected to head for “pastures new”. The last three mentioned have been on loan this season (Deulofeu at Watford) and it seems that none has made the grade with the Spanish champions.
Although Barcelona romped to the La Liga title, they were dumped out of the Champions League by Roma at the quarter-final stage, hence the radical shake-up of the squad this summer.
Gomes is wanted by Spurs who, claims the Mirror, are resigned to losing Dembele in the summer. The 30-year-old is set to sign for one of the Chinese Super League franchises.
The Belgian midfielder has impressed this season. But his head has allegedly been turned by the riches on offer in China, despite the fact he’ll be playing in a lower quality league.
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Dembele has a year to run on his contract and the Mirror reports that Tottenham will sell if they receive an “acceptable offer”. That money will then be used to sign Gomes. The paper says that the north London outfit may also bring in Bryan Cristante, the 23-year-old playmaker who has shone this season for the Italian outfit Atalanta while on loan from Benfica.