What the heck is a good player… The highest transfer fee in Tottenham’s history

[인터풋볼] Reporter Daesik Kim = Manager Antonio Conte is desperately looking for his Inter Milan student Alessandro Bastoni.

England’s ‘Football London’ reported on the 27th (Korean time), “Conte coach and general manager Fabio Paratici like Inter Milan centre-back Bastoni. Tottenham will have to spend more money to sign Bastoni than they have used to sign defenders in the past. Inter Milan will not sell below 60 million euros.”

Bastoni was born in 1999 and is very young, but already has considerable skills. When Conte took over at Inter Milan for the 2019-20 season, he signed Bastoni and started using him as a regular. Bastoni, who was only 20 years old, showed the play that Conte wanted, and in the 2020-21 season, he won the title with Inter Milan.

Even after Conte’s departure, Bastoni’s stock continues to rise. He is being hailed as the next world-class centre-back as he gains more and more big league and big stage experience. There are a lot of good centre-backs, but the reason Conte and Tottenham are looking for Bastoni is that they don’t have as many resources as Bastoni in their desired centre-back profile.

With a height of 190 cm, Bastoni also has good aerial control. It’s not slow either. Coach Conte prefers a left-footed player for left-back position, but Bastoni is very good at building up his left foot. Crucially, Bastoni is young. Even if Bastoni comes to Tottenham and doesn’t fit in, he can sell it back at full price.

It is true that he needs a small amount of money because he is such a good player. Inter Milan want a transfer fee of 60 million euros. The amount is the highest in Tottenham’s history. It is the same amount paid to Tanguy Ndombele in the 2018-19 season.

Tottenham have never invested so much in a defender. The highest transfer fee for a defender is 42 million euros (about 56.4 billion won), which was used to sign Davinson Sanchez in the 2017-18 season. Inter Milan are in a financially poor situation, so Tottenham are likely to exploit that weakness. If Bastoni comes, it is highly likely that they will push out Ben Davis and form the three-back with Christian Romero and Eric Dier.