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Tottenham Hotspur are lining up a summer bid for Ivan Perisic, per Tuttomercatoweb.

Spurs are said to be monitoring the Croatia international and have already been quoted a price by the Serie A giants.

What’s the word?

Spurs will have to pay €35million (£30m) to secure the signature of the 30-year-old, the aforementioned report states.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side are currently willing to pay €25m (£21.4m) for a player who helped Croatia to their first ever World Cup final in the summer.

Perisic has been in somewhat middling form for Inter this season, scoring five goals and providing seven assists in a total of 35 appearances for the club in all competitions.

Tuttomercatoweb claim that the difference in valuations is “not an easy distance to fill”.

And they also state that Perisic may well eventually decide to stay at the San Siro this summer, leading to the possibility of an exhausting transfer saga.

Ignoring the key issue

Spurs need full-backs.

Kieran Trippier, Serge Aurier and Ben Davies are not up to the task of playing for an elite European team, which is the level the club are aspiring to reach.

Pochettino’s side have not signed a single player in the last two transfer windows and they should be focusing on replenishing each side of their defence.

Bringing in Perisic does not solve that problem; he is not a wing-back and he has just turned 30.

The deal, at the end of the day, does not make a lick of sense for the club.

The likes of Aaron Wan-Bissaka of Crystal Palace and Max Aarons of Norwich City fit the profile of young, homegrown players. They would both be far better options than Perisic.