Manchester City have reportedly cooled off their interest in Tottenham Hotspur trio Dele Alli, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, Manchester City are scaling back their efforts to sign Dele Alli, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose in the summer transfer window, after deeming the Tottenham hotspur trio off limits.
The English trio have been three of the most influential players in the Tottenham first-team setup that has exploded into genuine Premier League title contenders in the last two seasons.
Alli, in particular, has been a revelation after being bought from League One side MK Dons. Having made the step up from the third division to English football’s top flight, Alli took to the Premier League like fish to water and has become a key member of the Tottenham attack.
His statistics make for impressive reading, with Alli scoring 16 goals in addition to providing 6 assists in 30 Premier League games, which makes it scarcely believable that the England international is just 21 years old.
Meanwhile, Danny Rose and Kyle Walker are the fullback duo that are in charge of providing the width in Mauricio Pochettino’s system, and have been vital contributors in attack, bagging 2 goals and 9 assists between themselves. The 26-year-olds have been the mainstays in defence alongside Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen.
What has been especially impressive about their development under the Tottenham boss is their improvement defensively, having often been criticised for coming up short at the back. As the trio continue to grow under Pochettino’s tutelage, they have become three of the most sought after players in England.
Several clubs have been circling around Alli, Rose and Walker in recent months, with Manchester City being one of their biggest admirers. Indeed, after what has been an underwhelming 2016/17 for the Citizens – one in which they have failed to challenge for the Premier League title, there is a need to make improvements.
Attack and the two fullback positions are among the priorities for Guardiola, and it is the former department where Alli was being touted as a long-term solution, alongside the youthful exuberance of Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Kevin De Bruyne.
The reports even claimed that a world record bid could have been in the offing to secure Alli’s services. Meanwhile, the two fullback positions are areas of concern for Pep Guardiola, with ageing players in Gael Clichy, Aleksandar Kolarov, Bacary Sagna and Pablo Zabaleta as his options.
In fact, the City boss has even had to play Jesus Navas as a makeshift right-back in recent weeks, which emphasises just how grim the situation is. However, if the report from the Daily Mail is to be believed, the Tottenham trio no longer remain targets for City.
While Guardiola remains keen on signing the three Englishmen, City’s director of football Txiki Begiristain has taken the call to abandon their pursuit of the players. That is because, the Alli, Rose and Walker are tied to long-term deals with Tottenham, making too costly to acquire.
City still intend to add to their pool of homegrown players to meet the quota set by the Premier League but in all likelihood, Alli, Rose and Walker will not be the three players.
