Journalist Alasdair Gold has revealed that Tottenham Hotspur were scouting Illya Zabarnyi and rated him highly before he moved elsewhere in January.

What’s the word?

On transfer deadline day, the 20-year-old defender was signed up by Premier League rivals Bournemouth moving from Dynamo Kyiv for a reported £24m.

Evidently, Spurs were pretty tied up focusing on landing Pedro Porro from Sporting Lisbon while offloading Matt Doherty to Atletico Madrid by terminating the defender's contract.

Of course, though, the club will still have other targets to chase in the summer window but it looks as though one well-liked defensive option has now slipped through their fingers.

When writing for football.london, Gold explained: "One defender who Tottenham had scouted extensively and really liked was Illya Zabarnyi. However, on Tuesday they watched on as the highly-rated 20-year-old put pen to paper for Bournemouth on deadline day in a £20m deal.

"Perhaps Spurs thought signing another young prospect for Conte was pointless compared to what they already had and maybe they thought that with Bournemouth in the relegation zone, the young centre-back could be back on the market in the summer anyway? They will hope they have not missed a trick though on a player many expect to become a star."

Missed opportunity?

Having managed to land himself a big-money move to the Premier League, Zabarnyi must clearly be well-rated. To be fair, at just 20 years old, he already has 24 caps for Ukraine and 84 appearances with Dynamo Kyiv.

That level of experience is impressive for a player so young and Spurs may well come to regret missing out on this deal. At least they still remain in the race for Bayer Leverkusen centre-back Piero Hincapie, who is set to be a summer target.

For now though, Antonio Conte will have to try and guide the team to success using the likes of Cristian Romero, Eric Dier, Davinson Sanchez, Clement Lenglet, Japhet Tanganga and Ben Davies in his defence.

Perhaps the lack of January moves for Zabarnyi and Hincapie explains why Daniel Levy supposedly blocked Tanganga from leaving this winter.