Report: Sevilla interested in taking Pape Sarr on loan

Antonio Conte has already confirmed that Tottenham Hotspur are planning to be active in the January transfer window, news which will certainly excite Spurs fans as we head into the new year. But if Spurs want to bring new players in, they’ll have to let some go and several players are widely tipped to depart the club on loan.

Two of those players include Senegalese midfielder Pape Matar Sarr and Spanish midfielder Bryan Gil. Italian journalist Matteo Moretto has a new transfer column at relevo.com that for the first time goes into some specific details of where they might go for the second half of the season. Moretto states that Sarr is of particular interest to Sevilla, while Valencia could again try and go for another loan for Gil. Djed Spence and Japhet Tanganga are also tipped for loans in January.

The other day I wrote to my colleague Samuel Silva, always attentive to Sevilla affairs, and together we realized that Sevilla’s interest in Pape Matar Sarr, Tottenham’s 20-year-old Senegalese midfielder, is real. There have been contacts between all the parties involved, but to this day Tottenham do not seem open to letting him go. Yes, there are those who are definitely on the exit ramp and I am going to reveal their names.

The first, of great interest in Spain, is Bryan Gil . The winger is still among Valencia ‘s targets -absolutely confirmed-, but other teams will undoubtedly be in the race. The others who will surely leave Tottenham are Djed Spence and Japhet Tanganga.

— Matteo Moretto, relevo.com

It’s interesting that Moretto states that Spurs aren’t as of now interested in letting Sarr go, though I’d suggest that’s probably a negotiation tactic rather than a firm stance. Sarr in particular is a player who has a very high ceiling but needs first team minutes in order to improve. I can see a potential benefit to keeping him at spurs for the first half of the season to learn Conte’s system and The Patterns™ but it’s to the point now where this guy needs to play. He certainly didn’t hurt his standing at all with solid performances in the World Cup and in Spurs’ friendly against Nice.

Gil was getting spot minutes for Spurs at a time when they were enduring an injury crisis at forward, but when the team’s healthy he’ll be right back on the bench. Conte has expressed interest in adding another attacker, possibly Ruslan Malinovskyi or a similar player, and that won’t help him either. Valencia seems extra keen — Gil was on loan there last spring and a deal couldn’t be worked out this past summer to take him back there though Valencia tried pretty hard. My guess is they’d like to buy him but just can’t afford his transfer fee at the moment.

Spence and Tanganga are two other young players who could benefit from first team minutes as they’re low on the depth chart.

That’s a lot of business for Fabio Paratici to get done and Conte will want players to come in to replace them at Spurs, but all of this makes sense. I’d guess — and even hope — that most of them can secure good loans somewhere before the end of next month.