The Athletic have revealed that Ansu Fati was convinced until Wednesday that he would be heading to Tottenham Hotspur before Brighton made a late move for him.
Tottenham concluded a deadline-day deal for Brennan Johnson, with several outlets indicating that the 22-year-old was Ange Postecoglou’s top attacking target (The Telegraph).
Until Thursday, there were some suggestions that Spurs could sign Fati instead of the Wales international (Sky Sports), but the Barca star eventually ended up joining Brighton on a season-long loan.
Fati thought he was heading to Tottenham
The Athletic have claimed that by Wednesday, Fati had decided that he would leave Barcelona in search of regular game time, with the attacker having communicated the same to Xavi.
The outlet states that while the forward’s agent, Jorge Mendes, put out the word that his client was available, Spurs were ‘tempted’ and decided to include the player on their shortlist of wide players to follow up.
It is explained that the structure of Mendes’ offer was always a loan without an option to buy. It is alleged by sources close to Fati that the 20-year-old seemed convinced about the idea of joining Spurs.
However, Roberto De Zerbi is thought to have called the Spain international and promised him an important role in the Brighton set-up, which swayed the player to move to the Amex Stadium instead.
I suspect Spurs only showed interest in Fati and Johan Bakayoko to put pressure on Forest to relax their demands for Johnson. The North Londoners might have made a more concrete effort for Fati if Barcelona had been willing to include an option to buy in the loan deal.
