Wages issue to resolve with Gotze

TRANSFER TALK

There is something in this Mario Gotze story, it isn't simply the British or Italian press making something up, although we are not going to suddenly splurge money to get him. However his contract is up in 2017 so he will be available at a sensible price.

This is a World Cup winner we are talking about, although some Spurs fans would have you believe he has turned into a hopeless flop overnight. He has played the high press system that Mauricio Pochettino uses so would be familiar with that and the training that goes into making it possible.

Liverpool tried to sign him but Gotze turned Jurgen Klopp down, no doubt the lack of any European football was a big factor in that. Borussia Dortmund are mentioned as being after the 24-year-old (25 next June) yet while they may be interested their fans certainly are nor, there is rather a lot of animosity towards him among them.

His current wages are an issue but perhaps not insurmountable, currently they are roughly £5.96-million (€7m - AUS$10.22m - US$7.74m) which equates to around £115,000-a-week. Harry Kane is being offerd a new contract and that will be less than that so there will be some hard negotiating to do. We are not simply going to blow our wage structure apart. If we sign someone above our wage ceiling than that will mean wage increases for the rest so it is more than just one wage.

German paper Bild say Jurgen Gotze (Mario Gotze's father) met Tottenham representatives twice during the European Championships. It diesn't take two meetings to determine their is no chance of signing him so there is a realistic possibility. The attraction of playing at Wembley for a young upcoming side may appeal, as may trying his hand at the Premier League.

The German is another attacking midfielder with experience we have been looking at, it's clearly an area Pochettino has highlighted where we need greater strength, which possibly suggests he is happy with Lamela and Eriksen coming in from the wings.

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