Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur

Premier League • England

Antonio Conte green lights Tottenham move for playmaking midfielder who has 57 goal involvements in 130 games for Serie A outfit

Ruslan Malinovskyi dribbling away from Omar Colley

Tottenham manager Antonio Conte has reportedly given the green light for the club to sign highly-rated Atalanta midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi.

Spurs have been heavily linked with the Ukraine international for some time, with the signing of a more attacking midfielder and potentially another centre-half on sporting director Fabio Paratici’s radar before the window shuts on September 1.

Malinovskyi, who is also wanted by Nottingham Forest and Marseille, is valued at £15million. And the report adds that will not be a problem for Tottenham money man Daniel Levy.

The north London club have already added a plethora of new signings this summer but more could arrive.

And now Conte, who was not on board for the addition of Djed Spence, has given the nod to snap up the 29-year-old.

That’s according to Daily Express journalist Ryan Taylor, who states that Italian is on board for the deal.

He told Give Me Sport: “I believe Ruslan Malinovskyi wants to join Tottenham and Conte is open to signing him.

“But Atalanta would like a permanent deal, whereas I don’t think Spurs are entirely set on that at the moment. He is 29 and there’s also been talks with Marseille.”

Tottenham‘s preference for a loan is not that surprising, given that they were unable to offload Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso on permanent deals.

The midfield duo are on loan at Villarreal and Napoli respectively, with views to permanent transfers.

But offloading the creative pair has left Conte light on players supplying attacking trio Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski.

Lack of creativity still an issue for Tottenham

The lack of creativity in Conte’s side was very evident in the draw at Chelsea and win over Wolves.

The big issue for the Italian, however, is how he fits in a player of Malinovskyi’s talents.

His 3-4-3 system does now allow for a playmaker, with Pierre Emile-Hojbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur his current midfield pivots.

Yves Bissouma does offer a bit more going forward but he is still working his way back to full fitness.

As for Malinovskyi, he has 57 direct goal contributions (30 goals and 27 assists) in 130 games for Atalanta.

Adding those sort of figures to what Tottenham already have would make their attack even more formidable.

It now just remains for the north club to try and strike a deal with Atalanta. However, if they won’t budge over their permanent exit stance then any transfer could end up dead in the water.

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