Paratici 'close to agreeing' Spurs move for £17m wizard hailed as 'one of the best' - report

Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly ‘close to agreeing’ a move for Barcelona winger Memphis Depay, according to a report from the Daily Express.

The report mentioned that the Netherlands international has found himself frozen out at Camp Nou under Xavi, with the imminent arrival of Robert Lewandowski set to push the 28-year-old further down the pecking order.

Spanish news outlet AS reported that the La Liga giants have made him available for transfer due to their wealth of attacking options, with the former Manchester United forward now likely to be offloaded by the Catalan club.

Spurs have already signed one marquee forward this summer with their £60m swoop for Richarlison from Premier League rivals Everton, but it seems that Fabio Paratici and co might not stop there.

The Daily Express reported that Tottenham are just £2m away from meeting Barcelona’s £17m valuation of Depay, with the headline stating that the north Londoners are ‘close to agreeing’ a transfer.

However, the report also claimed that Spurs will need to navigate multiple potential stumbling blocks if they are to clinch a deal for the winger.

Firstly, they might not be open to improving upon their £15m offer for a player with less than 12 months remaining on his contract. Also, Depay is believed to favour a move to somewhere other than England, while he is thought to be ‘happy’ at Camp Nou despite his first-team prospects looking bleak.

Depay boasts a tremendous goalscoring pedigree, having netted 42 times in 80 caps for Netherlands and hit double figures in four of his last five league campaigns, including 12 last term for Barcelona.

He has also been hailed as “one of the best” players in Europe by Camp Nou team-mate Riqui Puig, while his rankings in the top