'Quite surprising' - Journalist left shocked at who could join Tottenham

Antonio Conte led Spurs back into the Champions League with a fourth-place finish and the club are expected to reward the boss by backing him in the transfer market.

Having already shuffled his team in January, letting go of five players and bringing in Juventus pair Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski, who helped propel the Whites into the top four, the Italian is hoping to make improvements in the off-season. 

One area he may be keen to enhance is the midfield, as Spurs are thought to be interested in Soucek, with West Ham United recently setting a £40m price tag on the 27-year-old in an attempt to fend off interest from both Juventus and the north London club.

Taylor has revealed that when recruitments in the engine room are discussed, the Czech Republic international’s name is frequently mentioned – much to his disbelief.

He told GiveMeSport: “One unusual name that crops up, which is quite surprising, is Tomas Soucek.

“Quite a strange one, really, because obviously it’s not a player traditionally you’d sort of think stands out or a team would look at pinching from someone like West Ham.”

TIF Thoughts on Soucek to Spurs…

Doubts were originally cast over the 6ft 4in “man mountain” and his future at the Hammers when 90min revealed in April that talks over an improved contract were shelved until the summer, but journalist Paul Brown did feel that the east Londoners were still confident of tying down the £47k-per-week star.

The 2020/21 Hammer of the Year winner still has two years to run on his current deal, but the offer of Champions League football may be difficult to resist and he would be a key acquisition for Conte.

Although he hasn’t been able to match the fine goalscoring form of his first full season at the