Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur

Premier League • England

Tottenham keeper chase: ‘Ideal solution’ to replace Hugo Lloris ‘still in reach’ despite £66m fee being non-negotiable

Cristiano Ronaldo and Diogo Costa

Tottenham are reportedly within reach of signing a permanent replacement for Hugo Lloris this summer despite the player’s £66million transfer fee being non-negotiable.

Veteran stopper Lloris, who is on the verge of a first-team comeback after injury, signed a new two-year contract with the club back in 2022 that takes the 36-year-old through to the summer of 2024.

However, speculation continues that Spurs after keen on landing his long-term successor as soon as possible, especially given that the Frenchman’s form this campaign has been indifferent.

Everton stopper Jordan Pickford and Brentford’s David Raya are known to be high on Tottenham’s list of targets. But, according to a fresh report, the north London club are preparing an offer for Porto goalkeeper Diogo Costa instead.

The 23-year-old, who has also been strongly linked to take over from David de Gea at Manchester United, is widely regarded as one of the top young keepers in European football.

However, Correio da Manha claims that Spurs’ hopes of trying to negotiate a discounted price for Costa will almost certainly fall on deaf ears.

Porto are currently fully protected by a €75million (£66m) release clause in the player’s contract. However, it’s deemed that the high amount is not stratospheric and is ‘perfectly within reach of top English clubs.

That appears to suggest that Tottenham will have to cough up the full amount to get their man, with Porto standing form over their valuation.

Costa’s old clause was at €60m. However, realising that the market-value of top keepers was on the rise, Porto acted wisely by giving him a new contract in November and bumping that release fee up in the process.

Costa viewed as perfect Lloris successor

The Portuguese media, meanwhile, continues to hype up the chances of Costa heading to north London. Indeed, they claim that Spurs see the stopper as the ‘ideal solution’ to replace Lloris at No.1.

Tottenham have certainly been doing their homework on Costa, having sent several scouts to watch him numerous times this season.

But Daniel Levy’s only real hope of negotiating that fee down is the fact that Porto need to make €50m before investing themselves in the summer market.

That means, in all likelihood, that Levy will do what he does best and go in low first and then try and meet somewhere in the middle.

From Costa’s point of view, he will also need to see what sort of a state Spurs are in this summer.

They are currently without a permanent manager after parting company with Antonio Conte, while there is currently no guarantee of Champions League football with 10 games of the season still to go.

Tottenham will look to further cement a top-four spot when they head to Everton this Monday night.

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