Tottenham have stepped up their pursuit of Eberechi Eze by holding further talks regarding signing the England forward, but Crystal Palace want to line up a replacement before sanctioning his sale.
Spurs, who confirmed contract extensions for their new captain, Cristian Romero, on Monday, are longstanding admirers of Eze, having made a move for him last summer. They are even keener to get him now that James Maddison is out with an anterior cruciate ligament rupture. Dejan Kulusevski, another of the club’s key attacking midfielders, is out with a knee problem.
Eze is represented by the influential CAA Base agency, which has close links to Spurs, and he is open to the transfer. The 27-year-old forward has also been tracked by Arsenal, the club he supported as a boy and played for during his formative years.
Eze’s contract at Palace contained a £68m release clause but it expired last Friday. Spurs hope to get him for around £55m plus bonuses. Eze’s previous club, Queens Park Rangers, are entitled to 15% of any profits that Palace make on him. Palace paid around £19m to QPR for the player in August 2020.
Romero has re-signed at Spurs until 2029 and it represents something of a turnaround for him after he was linked with a move away at the start of the summer. The Argentina centre-half has made no secret of his ambition to one day play in Spain and he was of interest to Atlético Madrid. But having been given the Spurs captaincy after the departure of Son Heung-min to Los Angeles FC, the 27-year-old has re-emphasised his commitment. The right-back Djed Spence has also signed a new long-term contract with the club.
Palace, meanwhile, have targeted Leicester’s Bilal El Khannouss and Christos Tzolis of Club Bruges as potential replacements for Eze. The club are believed to have failed with an initial offer of £20m for El Khannouss, whose release clause expired at the weekend, with Leicester thought to want around £26m for the Morocco forward. Palace have also made an offer of £25m for Tzolis, a Greece international who spent three seasons at Norwich.
Oliver Glasner said he expected Eze to play for Palace in the Conference League playoff first leg against Fredrikstad at Selhurst Park on Thursday. If he did, he would still be able to play for another team in the league phase of European competition this season.
Marc Guéhi is also expected to feature on Thursday as Liverpool have yet to match Palace’s £40m valuation of the England defender, whose contract expires at the end of the season. Guéhi is understood to be willing to stay at Selhurst Park and leave on a free transfer although the Palace chairman, Steve Parish, has admitted that he would prefer to sell the 25-year-old this month.
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Palace had considered the Sporting defender Ousmane Diomande as a potential replacement for Guéhi but the 21-year-old is expected to be out for six weeks with a muscle injury and is unlikely to move this window.
Palace have also shown an interest in Jakub Kiwior but the Poland defender is believed to prefer to move overseas having been left out of Arsenal’s squad for the game against Manchester United on Sunday. Porto are in talks over a season-long loan for Kiwior with an obligation to make the move permanent at the end of the season.
