As English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur prepares for a major overhaul of its squad in the upcoming summer transfer window, the club has identified a Europa League-winning midfielder as a top priority.
“Tottenham have long been monitoring Atalanta midfielder Ederson, who was recommended to them by Fabio Paratici,” said Ryan Taylor of the Daily Mirror on Thursday, adding that “a new defensive midfielder is one of Enze Postecoglou’s top priorities for the summer transfer window, with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg set to be sold.”
“An offer in the region of £50 million is required for Atalanta to consider a move for Ederson,” he added.
The Brazilian midfielder has been playing for Atalanta since 2022.
He’s a box-to-box midfielder with great physicality who can attack and defend for the full 90 minutes. He’s been compared to Chelsea midfielder Connor Gallagher, which is exactly what Postecoglou wanted. This season, he led Atalanta to the Europa League title, which boosted his stock.
Spurs finished the season in fifth place and will play four competitions next season, including the Premier League, English domestic competition, and the Europa League. As a result, the club is undergoing a major overhaul of its squad to improve its depth.
The priority positions are midfield and up front. Currently, Pape Sarr, Yves Bissouma, and Rodrigo Bentancur are the mainstays of Tottenham’s midfield, with the likes of Hojbjerg and Oliver Skipp coming off the bench. There have been repeated calls for an overhaul of the midfield due to the large gap in quality between the starters and backups.
Under Postecoglou, Tottenham have been aggressively investing and revamping their squad. Postecoglou is looking to build a young and exciting squad and has garnered a lot of support after a successful summer and winter transfer window.
This season under Postecoglou, Spurs have spent €272.1 million on players and earned €117.2 million, according to Transfer Markt. The net outlay was €154.9 million.
First, the summer transfer window saw the arrivals of Brennan Johnson (€55 million), James Maddison (€46.3 million), Micky van der Pens (€40 million), and 메이저사이트 Guillermo Vicario (€18.5 million), while the club also spent €40 million and €30 million to buy Pedro Foro and Dejan Kulusebski outright from loan. Winger Manu Solomon was a free agent.
They then added a third defender in the winter transfer window, signing Radja Nainggolan for €30 million and bringing in Timo Werner on loan to add depth to their attack.
Spurs didn’t just add power immediately. In the summer, Spurs brought in promising English defender Ashley Phillips and promising Argentine striker Alejo Veliz, as well as Swedish wonderkid midfielder Lukas Berivald after a battle with FC Barcelona. He will join the Spurs squad next season.
Spurs have had a successful transfer window not only this season, but over the past few years under former sporting director Fabio Paratici. Rodrigo Bentancur, Pape Sarr, Destiny Udogie, and Cristian Romero all joined Tottenham under Paratici and have since become integral parts of the Spurs organization.
Tottenham are expected to be aggressive in the summer transfer market. A Spurs source told Football Insider in February that Postecoglou will receive “huge” support in the summer transfer market. According to the Times, Spurs will have a large transfer budget to help Postecoglou build the young, attacking squad he wants.