Fraser, N'dombélé, Isco, Bale, Kessié, Pépé, Hazard


Transfr Talk: Fraser, N'dombélé, Isco, Bale, Kessié, Pépé, Hazard

Tanguy-N'dombele

Several clubs are chasing Bournemouth winger Ryan Fraser and our name has been thrown at the story. The south coast club are asking £40 million (€44.93m - $50.96m) for him though so Manchester United have decided to look elsewhere. Fellow Europa League side Arsenal are also said to be interested.

Lyon would appear to be lining up a replacement for Tottenham target Tanguy N'dombélé in the shape of 31-year-old (32 in July) Brazilian central midfielder Luiz Gustavo from Marseille according to French newspaper L’Équipe.

My research shows him to be more of a defensive midfielder than a central midfielder, the two roles are different and he would hardly be a long term replacement. Not sure that this will speed any transfer through myself.


Napoli, Juventus and Manchester City are said to be chasing 27-year-old (28 next April) Spanish midfielder Isco, but he doesn't want to leave Real Madrid even though the system that Zinidine Zidane plays doesn't suit him.

Neither he nor Gareth Bale wants to leave but Real Madrid wants to raise an extra £267.07 million (€300m - $340.25m) on top of the £400.6 million (€450m - $510.37m) transfer budget.

According to Spanish paper AS, Gareth Bale has instructed Real Madrid not to listen to any offers for him as he has no intention of going anywhere.

Franck Kessié is a player Tottenham have tracked and there were reports in previous summer transfer windows that we tried to sign him. It is being reported that we have made an inquiry about him recently.

The 22-year-old (23 in December central midfielder) has reportedly been made available by AC Milan after they failed to qualify for the Champions League, instead, they will be competing in the Europa League along with Arsenal and Manchester United with the lesser income that brings.

Have Tottenham moved beyond him now or could he still be improved?

We are certainly still tracking him, as are Chelsea, PSG, Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid. In April, it was suggested a fee of around £40.06 million (€45m - $51.04m) would be needed to sign him.

Later reports AC Milan would put him up for sale around £35.61 million (€40m - $45.37m).

Those watching him would tend to suggest he still has the ability, but he has a mentality problem and has had fights with Francesco Acerbi of Lazio, his own teammate Tiemoué Bakayoko and a second teammate of his Lucas Biglia.

Mauricio Pochettino likes a happy ship, everyone pulling in the right direction and doesn't want to bring in players who would upset that rhythm. His fighting would appear to rule Kessie out on that score.

Nicolas Pépé is a sought after player. The Lille winger has been linked with a host of clubs and of course, the lazy British journalists report he is on the verge of joining several different clubs, depending upon which rag you read.

Bayern Munich are after new wingers to replace Robben and Ribery and a report suggests the Ivory Coast winger prefers a move to the Bundesliga and certain trophies that than taking chances of them in the Premier League.

The Eden Hazard fee might be as high as £130 million (€146.03m - $147.44m) in total once the add-ons are taken into account. Understanding how much has actually been paid and in what form may well have an impact of what Tottenham settle for over Christian Eriksen.

The undisclosed fee is reported to be £89.02 million (€100m - $m) plus £4.46 million (€5m - $m) from the Spanish end and talk of it totalling £130 million (€146.03m - $147.44m) from the Chelsea end.

I suspect that is what Chelsea asked for and it was knocked down to the lower fee.