Spurs Showing Serious Interest in DM Diawara

Spurs Showing Serious Interest in DM Diawara

It is clear that Lyon central midfielder Tangay N'dombélé is top of our list of central midfielders we want to sign and together with a central midfielder we need reinforcements in defensive midfield.

The two roles are different.

Central midfield links the defence with midfield and attack, either through passing or carrying the ball.

Defensive midfield is as the title suggests, more defensive, he's the one who will drop in between the two central defenders when they split wide or are out of position.

While they have licence to take the ball forward while the central midfield player hangs back,a defensive midfielder has a defensive rather than attacking mindset. You will often see them play a short pass to a playmaker or work with the central defenders to move the angle of attack out of defence, often via triangle passes.

Mousa Dombélé was a central midfielder whereas Victor Wanyama is defensive midfield. A defensive midfielder with a passing range is even better, gives the side another option.

For a couple of years now, at least, we have been watching the progress of 21-year-old (22 in July) Amadou Diawara, now at Napoli.

he was born in Conakry, Guinea and has 3 full international caps for them. The right-footer joined Italian side Bologna in July 2015 from San Marino and was an instant hit. he came to our attention then and we were linked with him but he moved to Napoli the following summer for £12.8 million (€14.5m).

He was in and out of the side. This season he has only played 661 minutes in Serie A, last season he only played 642 minutes and in 2016/17 1,037 minutes. The minutes you play in a domestic league is a sure fire way of assessing how valuable a player the club thinks they are.

When he burst on the scene for Bologna it was felt he had all the attributes so he could be a bargain in today's market if Mauricio Pochettino can work his coaching magic on the player.


Italian newspaper Il Mattino suggest he is available for £17.65 million (€20m), that Arsenal are interested and that Spurs are showing 'serious' interest.