• Club holding out for €14m for out-of-favour midfielder
• Lewis Holtby also set to leave on loan
Napoli have offered €10m (£8.25m) for Etienne Capoue but Tottenham Hotspur are holding out for €14m (£11.5m). The France international has slipped to the bottom of the midfield pecking order under Tim Sherwood and he is open to the transfer to fire his hopes of World Cup selection.
Napoli, managed by Rafael Benítez, initially attempted to structure a loan for Capoue but Tottenham made it clear that their preference was for a permanent deal. The Serie A club have returned with the €10m bid and Capoue’s agent, Mino Raiola, has been in London to negotiate with Tottenham.
Capoue only moved to White Hart Lane from Toulouse last August for a fee that could rise to £11m but his season has been stop-start. He missed two months with the ankle injury that he suffered at Arsenal on 1 September while his fortunes have ebbed since Sherwood took over as the manager from the sacked André Villas-Boas and came to favour Nabil Bentaleb, the France youth midfielder.
Benítez is eager to add balance to his Napoli team with the signing of a defensive midfielder and he has tracked the Brazilian, Ralf, of Corinthians. But Italian law places limits on the number of non-EU players that can sign and, with Napoli poised to get the Brazilian defender, Henrique, from Palmeiras, they will not have the room for Ralf, as well. Capoue is now the No1 target.
Meanwhile, Lewis Holtby’s agent expects his client to leave Spurs before the end of the transfer window. Holtby moved to Tottenham from Schalke 12 months ago, but has so far been unable to hold down a regular place in the starting line-up. Holtby played in a variety of positions under Villas-Boas, but has only started one game since Sherwood took over.
“My feeling is that he will leave but it’s not in our hands at the moment,” Holtby’s agent Marcus Noack said. “Tottenham have to agree to let him go first. We hope to find a solution in the next couple of days. I think it will be a loan because it is difficult for anyone to buy Lewis.”
- Tottenham Hotspur
- Transfer window
- Napoli
David Hytner
theguardian.com