Adarabioyo to Monaco deal nearly dead, Fulham want to sell him to Spurs

Fulham central defender Tosin Adarabioyo has been linked with a move to Tottenham Hotspur all summer. Spurs apparently like his profile and his homegrown status having come up through the youth system at Manchester City and see him as a viable option for a rotational or reserve defender under Ange Postecoglou.

But the feeling hasn’t really been mutual. Adarabioyo had his heart set on a move to AS Monaco in Ligue 1 and that appeared to be where he was heading… until perhaps now. Santi Aouna is now tweeting that the deal between Fulham and Monaco is now “nearly dead” with the Cottagers preferring to sell him to Spurs instead of to France.

Why? Well, probably becauseSpurs would potentially offering more money for Tosin. Reports in France suggest Monaco’s bid for Tosin is just £5m. Or perhaps there’s a player swap involved — there have been unsourced rumors that Eric Dier is a player of interest to Fulham, which raises the possibility of some sort of cash plus player arrangement between Fulham and Spurs. Who knows!

I’m not super high on Adarabioyo as a player, but he’s capable, homegrown (yes, I checked this time), probably not that expensive, and a solid enough rotational option in a season when Spurs aren’t playing extra midweek matches.

And we should also slow our roll here because there isn’t much info to suggest that Spurs are waiting to make a bid or that Adarabioyo would even accept it, at least yet. He likely thinks he’ll get more playing time as a potential starter at Monaco than as a confirmed backup for Spurs, and he’d be right. But he would tick a few boxes for Spurs and has been a player on their list for a while. Now that Spurs have gotten their first choice defender in Micky van de Ven, I’m okay shopping at the sale table for a few decent backups.