Spurs reported target Milan Skriniar delivered an impressive display in Slovakia’s first Euro 2020 fixture.
Tottenham have been linked with the Inter Milan defender for a long time.
Back in March, Fabrizio Romano suggested that Spurs were still eyeing the 26-year-old.
“I will mention again Skriniar because they love this player,” Romano said on his Here We Go podcast.
“They are scouting, they love this player, they are convinced he would be perfect.
“Mourinho loves this player. He’s one of the players they are convinced would be perfect.
“It is about the scouting, the board, Mourinho. They have one big problem, they were really close to signing Milan Skriniar.
“They offered like €35m (£30m), Inter were asking for €50m (£42.5m), so they were close, but they decided to give up.
“What happened in this moment is that Conte is doing an amazing job with Skriniar and now he is a starter, before they had Diego Godin and Skriniar wasn’t playing.
“Now he’s a starter and he is doing so well, fans are in love with Skriniar, so now it is not €50m (£42.5m), I think it will be around €80/75m (£68m/£63m) for Skriniar.”
Serie A connections
Obviously Mourinho is no longer at Spurs, but they could still have a good chance of tempting Skriniar to N17 thanks to two Serie A connections.
Former Juventus director Fabio Paratici is now at Tottenham, while former Roma boss Paulo Fonseca is reportedly on the brink of joining.
And what Skriniar delivered on Monday would’ve certainly gone down well with any scouts who might’ve been watching.
Slovakia kicked off their Euro 2020 campaign against Poland in Saint Petersburg.
Skriniar had a tough test on his hands against Bundesliga hotshot Robert Lewandowski, and he passed with flying colours.
Not only did the Inter ace thwart many of Poland’s attacks, but also weighed in with the winning goal.
Slovakia had opened the scoring on 18 minutes through a Wojciech Szczesny own goal.
However, Karol Linetty finished off a neat one-touch move to draw his country level early in the second half.
On 69 minutes, a corner kick fell kindly to Skriniar inside the box, around 15 yards out.
He controlled well and let rip with a powerful effort that gave the Poland keeper no chance.
Spurs would be landing “one of the best trackers”
Slovakian outlet Sportnet was full of praise for Skriniar at full time and even gave him a 10/10 rating.
“Commander of the Slovak Defense,” they wrote.
“First, he blocked a dangerous shot by Lewandowski.
“He read the game well, played emphatically and cleanly. He dominated the air. And he added work in the attack.
“After the corner, he controlled the ball and, with a shot from the volley, he decided as an experienced sharpshooter.
“He has shown that he is one of the best trackers in the world.”