Tottenham Hotspur have made a bid to bring Ferran Torres back to the Premier League in the January transfer window.
What's the talk?
That's according to a recent report from Spain which claims that Fabio Paratici has now submitted a €35m (£31m) offer to Barcelona for the versatile forward.
However, the LaLiga side are believed to be set to reject this bid out of hand - with the Catalan club said to be demanding a figure closer to €50m (£44m) in order to part with the 22-year-old.
The report goes on to suggest that both Arsenal and AC Milan are also keeping a close eye on the situation of the Spain international ahead of potentially launching their own move for the attacker this winter, although it is claimed that Spurs are considered the favourites to seal the former Manchester City starlet's signature.
Son 2.0
While it is true that Torres has fallen down Xavi Hernandez's attacking pecking order at the Camp Nou this season - starting just two league fixtures so far in 2022/23 - considering just how impressive the 22-year-old was last time out, it is not difficult to understand why Paratici would be keen on a deal to bring the Spaniard to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this winter.
Indeed, over his 18 LaLiga appearances last season, the £106m-rated talent was in fantastic attacking form, scoring four goals, providing four assists and creating seven big chances for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 2.9 shots - 1.1 of which hit the target - making 0.7 key passes and completing 0.7 dribbles per game.
These returns saw the 35-cap international - who is capable of operating from any position across a front three - average an extremely impressive Sofascore match rating of 6.98, ranking him as Barca's 14th-best performer in the top flight of Spanish football in 2021/22.
The £165k-per-week forward also impressed over his six outings in the Europa League last term, scoring two goals, registering two assists and creating one big chance, as well as taking an average of 2.8 shots, making 0.8 key passes and completing 1.7 dribbles per match - with these metrics seeing the 22-year-old average a Sofascore match rating of 6.92.
Putting these numbers into context, FBref currently rank Torres in the top 7% of attacking midfielders and wingers in Europe's big five leagues for shots per 90, in addition to the top 8% for non-penalty xG, the top 16% for passes completed, the top 15% for touches in the opposition penalty area and the top 7% for progressive passes received.
Furthermore, with the player who Xavi previously dubbed "spectacular" and "marvellous" being a right-footed left-winger who is a danger in both a creative and goalscoring capacity in the final third, it is hardly surprising to see FBref list Spurs' own Son Heung-min as one of Torres' most comparable players.
As such, should Paratici manage to get a deal over the line for Barcelona star this winter, he could well be rewarded with the discovery of Tottenham's next Son-esque talent on the left flank - something that is sure to be an extremely tantalising prospect for everyone involved with the club, not least Antonio Conte himself.