Tottenham Hotspur manager José Mourinho has declined to deny claims that his side are keen on Crystal Palace forward Alexander Sørloth.
Mourinho has spoken publicly of his side's need for a striker to compete with Harry Kane for minutes, and reports in Turkey have suggested that Sørloth, who excelled on loan with Trabzonspor last year, is the man for Mourinho.
Trabzonspor president Ahmet Ağaoğlu recently told Fanatik that they planned to meet with Palace, Spurs and RB Leipzig in the coming days to figure out their next move. Trabzonspor are obliged to buy Sørloth next summer when his two-year loan expires, but they hope to either sign him permanently now or negotiate a nice percentage of any fee if Palace agree to sell him this summer.
Mourinho was asked about the claim during a press conference, and while he was keen to avoid discussing Sørloth, he admitted that he could not deny the Trabzonspor president's statement.
"I’m not going to discuss the player because he belongs to Trabzonspor but if the president says that then I am not going to say it is not true," he said (via John Cross).
With Leipzig also keen on Sørloth, Spurs have been forced to consider a number of options, and another player who has found his name linked with a move to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is Southampton star Danny Ings.
That's according to football.london, who put Ings on a long list of strikers which also includes Metz's Habib Diallo, Benfica's Carlos Vinícius and Napoli's Arkadiusz Milik, although the report does acknowledge that Spurs don't expect to be able to pull such a deal off.
90min understands that Braga's Paulinho has also played his way on to Mourinho's radar this summer, with the boss impressed by his physical similarities to Kane.
However, the 27-year-old, who bagged 25 goals in all competitions last year, is expected to cost close to the £30m mark, which is why Spurs are considering all their options.
They hope to avoid spending that kind of money on a back-up striker.
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Source : 90min