Frabizio Romano has dropped a major update on Tottenham Hotspur’s reported summer transfer target, Franck Kessie.
What’s the talk?
Speaking on a recent episode of the Here We Go podcast, the transfer insider revealed that, despite being heavily linked with a move to north London at the end of the current campaign, the AC Milan midfielder is now set to join Barcelona this summer – with the Ivorian having signed a four-year deal with the LaLiga side.
Speaking about the future of the 25-year-old, Romano said: “For Frank Kessie, it’s here we go to Barcelona. Now we can say that, because everything has been signed between Kessie, his agent – George Atangana – and Barcelona.”
Conte will be fuming
Considering just how talented a player Kessie quite clearly is, in addition to it being reported that Antonio Conte was desperate to add the Ivory Coast international to his current options in the middle of the park, the news that the 25-year-old is now set to join Barcelona this summer is sure to have left the Tottenham manager and supporters fuming.
Indeed, it is easy to see why the Milan maestro was a target of the 52-year-old, as, over his 23 Serie A appearances this season, the £40.5m-rated dynamo has bagged five goals and created one big chance for his teammates, as well as making an average of one key pass, 0.8 interceptions, 1.2 tackles, 38.6 passes and winning four duels per game.
These returns have seen the £69k-per-week titan average a highly impressive SofaScore match rating of 7.07, ranking him as Stefano Pioli’s joint eighth-best performer in the top flight of Italian football.
However, it was over Kessie’s 37 league outings last season in which the 25-year-old truly established himself as one of the leading midfielders in European football, bagging 13 goals, providing four assists and creating five big chances for his teammates, in addition to making an average of 47.9 passes, 1.2 interceptions, 1.4 tackles and winning 5.2 duels per fixture.
These metrics saw the player who Antonio Cassano dubbed a “devastating” talent earn a quite sensational seasonal SofaScore match rating of 7.18, ranking him as the Rossoneri’s third-best player in Serie A.
As such, the fact that Tottenham have missed out on the Ivorian’s signing will undoubtedly come as a gutting blow to Conte and his side, who will now be forced to turn their focus in the summer transfer window elsewhere.
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