Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly set to hijack Chelsea's Hakim Ziyech's move back to Ajax as the out of favour winger looks for a way out of Stamford Bridge.
Spurs have already added Richarlison to their front-line but also lost striker Steven Bergwijn to the Dutch champions earlier in the window, and it is thought that the Lilywhites are keen to add another attacking option behind Dejan Kulusevski and Heung Min-Son in the wide positions.
According to Dutch news outlet AD, the report claims that Antonio Conte wants to add an experienced forward-thinking player to his squad. He originally had his sights on Nicolo Zaniolo, who Jose Mourinho has since convinced to continue his career at Roma.
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Ziyech is keen to leave Chelsea due to a lack of regular match action and has held talks in the past few days with former club Ajax. They, in turn, are potentially braced for the exit of Antony to Manchester United for a fee reported to be around £85m.
Ajax would need to offload the Brazilian before they look to proceed with a move for Ziyech, with Tottenham ready to pounce should a deal fail to be agreed before the September 1st deadline.
The 29-year-old has aspirations of returning to the Moroccan national team ahead of November's World Cup now that former boss Vahid Halilhodzic is no longer in charge after he was fired last month.
There are a couple of potential obstacles to this deal that spring to mind, and arguably the most important would be whether Chelsea would be prepared to do business with Tottenham, something which was a non-starter under Roman Abramovich.
Ziyech will also want regular first-team football and whether he would be prepared to come in and be a bit-part player from the bench again, as Conte seems set on the personnel he wants to play in his front three.
Whilst it would be a shrewd piece of business for Spurs, it seems questionable on Ziyech's behalf to stay in the Premier League with aspirations of first-team football. Ajax is a club he knows well, and if they lose Antony, it seems guaranteed he would play every week in the Eredivisie.
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