Ange Postecoglou could see his plot to land James Maddison taken off the rails by Newcastle - with Magpies confident of swerving FFP regulations to land him.
The Australian has swiftly got to work since swapping Celtic for Spurs, greenlighting permanent moves for loanees Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro and on Sunday agreeing a £17.2m deal for keeper Guglielmo Vicario. But he's not stopping there as he looks to strengthen after a dreary season led to the SOS call that took him south.
Maddison is widely believed to be one of Postecoglou's top targets and while Newcastle are also keen, it was thought their move for Sandro Tonali - who will set them back £55m - torpedoed those hopes. Not for a lack of cash from their Saudi owners, but because it put them dangerously close to being in breach of Financial Fair Play regulations. A deal for Tonali takes them over the £200m barrier for fees spent since the PIF took over and they have only recouped a small fraction of that through player sales in the same period.
But the Daily Mail say they aren't worried and are confident they can sign the Leicester playmaker without any risk of overstepping and being denied entry to the Champions League or other UEFA competitions.
Presumably that is because Eddie Howe and co have plans in place to sell players and offset a chunk of their spending. Ryan Fraser, Matt Ritchie, Jamaal Lascelles and Jamal Lewis are among those believed to be up for sale.
