Spurs monitoring Diawara but he's not playing at Napoli


Tottenham Transfer Talk

Amadou-Diawara

The summer we will see changes to the Spurs squad as Mauricio Pochettino tries to improve it further. Central and defensive midfield have been an issue this season with Eric Dier, Victor Wanyama and Mousa Dembélé all being injured at the same time.

Wanyama and Dembélé may move on leaving more chances for Oliver Skipp but also a need for at least one replacement. A player we have been following is 21-year-old (22 in July) Napoli midfielder Amadou Diawara.

He is reportedly unhappy as he is now getting even less game time under new manager Carlo Ancelotti than he was under Maurizio Sarri before he left for Chelsea. He has played just 483 minutes equivalent to 9.22 full games.


The director of RMC Sport, Niccolò Ceccarini, writes that Carlo Ancelloti wants to keep Diawara and that a sale would only happen if a Super offer came in, which won't happen from an Italian side as they don't have the money.

Fiorentina are interested in taking him on loan, Wolves are interested with reports suggesting £31.33 million (€35m) which is a little premature considering it's suggested he won't even be allowed to leave on loan until 20th January at the earliest.

The promising defensive midfielder is an excellent tackler and has a good short passing game. He closes spaces, intercepts the ball and has the physicality to play the role. However, he can hold the ball when moving forward too.

He has an ability to beat a press and possess an excellent long passing game in addition to a short one. he excelled in Serie A when he first arrived at Bologna but a slump in form saw him struggle for game time at Napoli. First, he was second fiddle to Jorginho, then he hasn't been given the trust of his head coaches.

Diawara fits our profile of a good footballer young enough to improve with the physicality to handle the Premier League. There is a quality footballer in there waiting to be developed.

He has Italian citizenship but turned down Italy to represent his homeland (as all players should) Guinea. That does mean that any club will lose him to the African Cup of Nations in January every two years.