Report: ‘Extraordinary’ player agrees to join new club, but he'd rather be signing for Tottenham
Atalanta midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi has interest from Tottenham but has agreed to sign for French outfit Marseille.
French outlet Foot Mercato claim that the Ligue 1 side are willing to offer the Ukrainian international a route out of Atalanta.
The report says the midfielder has fallen out with his manager Gian Piero Gasperini and is now looking into potential exit routes.
He would rather join Tottenham but that has not materialised yet, so he has agreed to sign for Marseille but there is still plenty of work to do.
Malinovskyi would rather join Tottenham than Marseille
Marseille and Atalanta are apparently a long way apart still over the transfer fee to be paid to sign Malinovskyi before the deadline.
That offers hope for Tottenham that if they are serious about signing the 29-year-old, a deal is still there to be done at the right price.
One potential issue is that he is not at the age profile Spurs have been targeting on the whole so far, although Antonio Conte did bring in Ivan Perisic as a ready-made winner.
Speaking about the situation, Gasperini said: “I already have difficulties with the players… I just can’t do it!”
“[Malinovskyi] has been extraordinary for us, then over the years there has always been Ilicic, we never thought of finding player with those characteristics.
“He has been great at adapting, he has done some very good things. But it’s right for Atalanta to look for a player who scores more than six goals.
“He has adapted very well, but it’s right that in the market the club looks for players with characteristics more suitable for the game.”
