Antonio Conte wants Tottenham to sign £53m star more than any other player - journalist

By Sam Preston

Alessandro Bastoni is the central defender Antonio Conte wants Tottenham to sign more than any other option.

That is according to the Daily Mail’s Sami Mokbel, speaking on The Spurs Chat Podcast about potential transfer business.

It seems like Spurs will not go for a new central defender this month, perhaps because they do not think there is one of the right quality on the market mid-season.

Or maybe they do not want to spend a fortune this month and the players they would like to sign for Conte cost more than they want to pay now.

Conte wants Bastoni in his defence

Mokbel said of potential Tottenham central defensive targets: “In terms of the one you keep hearing, it’s Bastoni.

“He is the one player that Antonio Conte would potentially love the most to bring to his team.

“But I think they have bigger fish to fry, never say never in January, but a centre half hasn’t really come across my radar [for now].”

Spurs tried hard for Bastoni in the summer, when he was valued at 60 million euros (£52.7 million), but could not get him before signing Clement Lenglet on loan.

Bastoni’s Inter deal runs out in 2024 and as yet he has not signed a new one, despite turning down Spurs to stay in Italy during the summer.

The man they signed for 31 million euros (£27.2 million) in August 2017 will not come cheap despite that situation, from the looks of it.

Of course, it remains to be seen if Conte will commit his future to Spurs, which is an issue which has dragged on all month long when it might have been hoped that the situation could have been resolved during the mid-season break for the World Cup.