Conte now eyeing bargain Spurs swoop for £18m "warrior", he could be his Kante 2.0 - opinion

Tottenham Hotspur target Idrissa Gueye is exactly the sort of player Antonio Conte wants at the club…

That’s according to transfer insider Dean Jones, who delivered the claim to GIVEMESPORT recently, where he said:

“He’s obviously a warrior, and there’s this sort of player that Conte wants to see in there.

“He’s got this real feeling that losing games didn’t hurt Tottenham enough, so he’s trying to look for players of a certain character at the moment.”

The north London outfit were linked with a move for the Paris Saint-Germain midfielder by reports in France earlier this month, and the Ligue 1 champions could be open to selling him for around €20m (£18m) as he enters the final year of his current £99k-per-week contract.

After a fresh £150m cash injection ahead of the summer transfer window, it’s believed that Conte wants as many as six new signings at Hotspur Way, in which another central midfielder is thought to be among the targets.

Gueye at 32 may not be the most inspiring option but given their interest in Ivan Perisic, 33, it seems the Italian is targeting proven experience in a bid to change their fortunes in the short term.

Competing in the Champions League next season, Spurs will certainly need strength in depth to compete on all fronts and signing another engine room option would be wise, especially with Harry Winks and Giovani Lo Celso on the way out.

Just as Jones explains, Gueye is a ‘warrior’ and has done the business in the Premier League before, at Everton. He very much fits the mould of N’Golo Kante, who the Italian head coach had during his time at Stamford Bridge.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Oliver Skipp and Rodrigo Bentancur are very solid options but none fit that mould as well as the 90-cap Senegal