Paratici disaster: Spurs eyeing "comically weak" £92k-p/w flop, he'll hold Conte back - opinion

Tottenham Hotspur risk making a disaster amid mooted interest in Clement Lenglet…

According to football.london reporter Alasdair Gold, the FC Barcelona centre-back features on Antonio Conte and Fabio Paratici’s defensive shortlist and as a left-footed option, he makes a lot of sense.

Spurs have also targeted Inter Milan‘s Alessandro Bastoni and RB Leipzig’s Josko Gvardiol but could be priced out of a move for either.

It’s thought that the Italian sporting director tried to sign the France international on loan during the early days of his tenure last summer but he wanted to remain at the Catalan giants.

However, their financial woes now mean that the 26-year-old could be expendable, though it remains to be seen how much he’d command. CIES Football Observatory value him at €30m (£26m).

Whilst the 6 foot 1 colossus fits the bill as the left-sided centre-back that Conte desperately needs, a move for him could spell disaster as he’s just not good enough to elevate Spurs onto the next level.

Lenglet started only seven LaLiga games during the 2021/22 campaign, often being sat behind the young duo of Eric Garcia and Ronald Araujo, which is a rather damning indictment of his quality.

That’s if his 6.3 average WhoScored rating didn’t tell enough – the worst of any Barca player to feature in over 500 minutes of game time.

During last summer’s European Championships, the 26-year-old’s defending was described as being “comically weak” by The Athletic reporter Liam Twomey.

When you factor in his £92k-per-week wages, on top of his current estimated value, this transfer swoop could indeed be something of a disaster from Paratici.

He delivered with Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur but Emerson Royal and Bryan Gil have struggled to