It is not just Liverpool and Spurs chasing Ćorić

TRANSFER TALK

Transfer season is fast approaching and all the old stories are being revived, although according to the Express missing a few components.

Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur are going head to head in a battle for Dinamo Zagreb starlet Ante Ćorić they scream at us. What has happened to Manchester City and every other top club in Europe that keeps trying to ign him, have they suddenly lost interest? No, of course they haven't.

The 19-year-old (20 nxt April) Croatian international (he has 2 full caps) attacking midfielder has consistently stated he is in no rush to league Zagreb until he has developed sufficiently to command a starting spot in a top team. He isn't interested in being sent out on loan, as Manchester City wanted to do.

The Express tell us that Man City are not expected to renew interest, I find that highly unlikely, they are not going to just drop interest in a highly-rated player that they want, they'll try to convince him his future is best served with them. There are plenty of clubs across Europe who will do the same and there haven't been previous reports suggesting the Premier League is his preferred destination.

On 26 October the Sun reported that Manchester City were going to fight it out with Liverpool for Ante Ćorić, yesterday they say Liverpool and Tottenham will go head-to-head. Make your minds up chaps.

It should be remembered that he has only just passed the 100 game mark for his club (102 now), so there is experience there albeit at a lower level. In that time he has scored 15 goals and had 19 assists, the first being on 10 May 2014. he has only ever picked up one yellow card in that time (nearly 4,000 minutes) and that was in a European game, he has never had a domestic yellow card.

In the Premier League, Ćorić would be expected to make professional fouls to stop play and allow his team to regroup behind the ball so his yellow card record would have to change. One assumes he would have no problem with that. There are reports that he lacks aggression, which only receiving one yellow card would seem to confirm and that he lacks a defensive side to his game. They are problems that would need to be resolved so there is a question mark whether his character allows him to perform what is an essential part of the game.

This season he has 2 goals and 3 assists in 13 league games, 12 as a starter, although he has only completed a full game twice.

Liverpool, Barcelona, Bayern Munich have all been turned down and a report back in September in Sportski suggests that he would rather go to Porto or Benfica for guaranteed game time to aid his development, except they won't pay the transfer fee. Apparently, the pair offered £8.61-million (€10m), Tottenham offered £12.92-million (€15m) and Manchester City offered £13.78-million (€16m).