Tottenham Hotspur are plotting a move to sign Adama Traore before next week's transfer deadline...

What's the word?

According to the Telegraph's Matt Law, the north London outfit will soon launch a move for the £27m-rated Wolves attacker, who has previously played under Spurs manager Nuno Santo.

"Tottenham to accelerate talks over Adama Traore," the reliable reporter tweeted. "Deal could end up being a loan with a view to a permanent £40m move or a series of small staggered payments like Liverpool structured for [Diogo] Jota."

Earlier in the window, the six-cap Spain international was thought to be one of a few players that the Midlands outfit would be prepared to cash in on this summer and with just two years to run on his £46k-per-week contract, they could now be tempted to sell before his value diminishes.

It's thought Wolves currently believe he's worth in the region of £40m, whilst they accepted just £4m upfront for Jota in a deal that could potentially rise to £45m for the Portuguese forward.

Better than Bergwijn

On Sunday, Spurs caught a glimpse of the damage that the explosive winger can do. He may not have scored or assisted but he ran Nuno's defence ragged throughout the 90 minutes he was on the pitch.

As per SofaScore, Traore was successful with nine of his ten dribbling attempts (90%), created four key chances and won a whopping 17 of 22 duels (77%). His 7.8 match rating was only bettered by Ruben Neves and Hugo Lloris across the whole pitch.

Built like a brick wall, the powerful 5 foot 10 dynamo would add a very threatening element to Spurs' attack and crucially, one that the manager knows more than anyone. A lot of Traore's transformation has to be accredited to Nuno.

His maiden Premier League season at Wolves saw returns of just one goal and one assist but across both the 2019/20 and 2020/21 campaigns, he provided 18 direct goal contributions - a drastic increase, via Transfermarkt.

Last season, no player in the entire top-flight managed as many dribbles per game (4.1) as the Spaniard and that combined with him being fouled 2.3 times per match (third-highest in the division) makes him an incredibly tough man to play against.

It's no wonder Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp once described the Wolves sensation as "unplayable".

Furthermore, BT Sport's Rio Ferdinand claimed Traore was a "machine" who "could be a powerlifter or a cruiser-weight boxer" because of his sheer size, via the Birmingham Mail.

Another winger may be the last thing Spurs need, particularly after signing young gem Bryan Gil but on the above evidence, he'd be an instant and huge upgrade on someone like Steven Bergwijn, who has quickly become a starter under Nuno - but without much return.

During their clash at the weekend, the Dutchman could only pull off 50% of his dribbles (two) and won just three of 13 duels (23%), which is a stark contrast to his opposite number in the match, as seen above.

Whilst last term, Bergwijn found the net just four assists, far off the levels of the Wolves attacker.

If Fabio Paratici can land Traore on a loan-to-buy agreement, then he'll have pulled off quite the coup. Nuno would be getting a player he's very familiar with and one that could walk straight into the starting XI.

AND in other news, Imagine him & Hojbjerg: Paratici could form lethal Spurs duo by signing £26m "machine"...