According to Torino's sporting director, Davide Vagnotti, Tottenham had talks with Andrea Belotti over a potential move in the summer transfer window.

What's the word?

Jose Mourinho's side enjoyed a very successful few weeks off the pitch, bringing in the likes of Gareth Bale and Sergio Reguilon for example. And then, with very little time left in the window, the north Londoners brought in Carlos Vinicius on a season-long loan deal from Portuguese giants Benfica, with an option to buy.

However, Vagnotti has confirmed that Spurs could have ended up with Belotti, but that the Italy international was far too valuable for the Italians. He said (as quoted by Football Italia): "I’d love to see Belotti stay at Torino for the rest of his career. He has values that are crucial for being the captain of Torino. We had a chat with Tottenham but Belotti is too important for us."

Better than Vinicius

Whilst Spurs did end up solving their striker conundrum with a late move for Vinicius, there's a real argument to be made that they missed a trick by not trying to convince Torino to part ways with Belotti.

The £55k-a-week earning Italian has proven himself to be a prolific goal-scorer in Serie A, bagging 94 goals in just 194 games for Torino. The 26-year-old has been doing the business year-in and year-out for a number of seasons now, and that consistency is what would have made him the ideal foil for Harry Kane.

Vinicius may have enjoyed an outstanding campaign last year for Benfica with 18 goals in 32 league games, but he's been a relatively late bloomer, and there's an element of a one-season wonder about him. The season before, he was at AS Monaco, where he scored just twice in 18 matches, whilst the year before that, he was plying his trade in the Portuguese second tier.

Belotti is just a year older than the Brazilian, and his consistency at a higher level would have made him the bigger guarantee of the two in terms of being a success at Spurs. Hailed by new Spurs boy Joe Hart as someone with an "instinct for goals", the Italian would have been the better signing for the Lilywhites.