Tottenham Hotspur have been dealt a potential blow in their bid to bring Alexis Mac Allister to north London in the January transfer window.

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Transfer Focus

In a recent interview with BBC Sport, Brighton & Hove Albion chief executive Paul Barber revealed that, despite the reported interest of Spurs and a number of other big European sides, he is hoping to keep a hold of the central midfielder for a number of years - something that would suggest the Seagulls are unlikely to sanction the 23-year-old's sale this winter.

Regarding the interest in the Argentina international, Barber said: "He will be sought after, we're very aware of that, but we hope to keep him here as long as we can.

"Of course, when staff and players do well, as we've seen in the last few months, they do attract the interest of other big clubs. These are clubs that are wealthier and have the chance to give players a new level, we understand that and we're not naive to that.

"All we can do is protect ourselves the best we can through the contracts and hope we can hold on to the player for as long as possible, but this is a young man who has just won the World Cup at 23 and set up arguably one of the most iconic goals in World Cup history."

"Golden boy"

Considering just how impressive Mac Allister has been for both Brighton and Argentina this season, the argument that Fabio Paratici simply must launch a move for the midfielder in January, regardless of Barber's latest comments, is an extremely easy one to make.

Indeed, over his 14 Premier League appearances in the current campaign, the £35m-rated talent has been in exceptional attacking form, having already scored five goals and created one big chance for his teammates, as well as taking an average of 1.9 shots, making 0.9 key passes and completing 0.6 dribbles per game.

The 23-year-old has also impressed in metrics more typical of his position, making an average of 3.1 tackles - the joint ninth-most in the league - 1.4 interceptions and winning 5.8 duels - at a success rate of 59% - per fixture, in addition to enjoying an average of 72.9 touches, playing 2.2 long balls and completing 51.1 passes - at a success rate of 89% - per match.

These returns have seen the starlet who Barber dubbed "incredible" average a remarkable Sofascore match rating of 7.31, not only ranking him as Brighton's best performer in the league but also as the 10th-best player in the English top flight as a whole.

However, it was undoubtedly Mac Allister's extraordinary performances during Argentina's World Cup-winning campaign in Qatar that catapulted the youngster into the upper echelon of midfield talents.

Arguably his best display in the competition came in the final, with the £50k-per-week starlet enjoying 76 touches of the ball, completing 44 of his 52 attempted passes and providing the assist for Ángel Di María's goal, as well as making one tackle, one clearance, blocking one shot and winning eight duels.

These returns not only saw the 23-year-old earn a simply sensational Sofascore match rating of 7.4, but they also saw the midfielder come in for a considerable amount of praise, with Fentuo Tahiru Fentuo dubbing the 23-year-old both "fabulous" and "unreal" in the final, while Ryan Adsett labelled the talent a "golden boy" and Argentina's "star-man" after the match.

As such, it would indeed appear an extremely wise move for Paratici to launch a move for the Brighton wonderkid this winter, as Mac Allister has more than proven that he can perform on the very biggest stage world football has to offer - while he would also quite clearly make an exceptional addition to Antonio Conte's current options in the heart of midfield.