After winning Serie A last season, AC Milan have reportedly set their sights on bringing Tottenham academy product Japhet Tanganga to the San Siro for next season.
Talks are reported to have 'intensified' in the past few hours after it was reported in Corriere Dello Sport that the 23-year-old was being eyed as a 'serious' replacement for Alessio Romagnoli, who has departed for rivals Lazio on a free transfer. Should Tanganga join Milan, he would link up with fellow Englishman Fikayo Tomori, who joined I Rossoneri in 2021, initially on loan before making the deal permanent at the beginning of last season.
There appear to be limited opportunities for Tanganga going forward at Tottenham after the arrival of Antonio Conte resulted in him making just 11 Premier League appearances last season, albeit this was the most the defender has managed in his three seasons in the first team in North London. This was after starring nine of Conte's first 16 matches in charge before a knee injury hindered his progress.
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Tanganga is capable of playing across the back four, with the right footed defender having made his Premier League debut as a left-back against Liverpool during the 2019/20 season under Jose Mourinho. Since then, he has made 43 first team appearances but has failed to break through to become first choice despite the club's lack of depth at centre-back.
The signing of Clement Lenglet appears to be a significant sign that there is no place for the player, despite him recently revealing to football.london what Conte had asked of him during this pre season. Speaking exclusively, he explained to Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold what targets he had been set by the Italian.
"It's intense, I think not only as a defender but as a team. He really wants us to work hard," he said. "He has his methods and he really wants us to buy into it, so it's about concentration and focusing and implementing what he wants on the pitch. It's all good. He speaks to you to let you know if you're doing good or bad, what you need to improve on and what you're doing well. He's a good coach.
"I think the ownership has to come from the players. The gaffer gives us the solutions, but it's up to us on the pitch to decide what is the right one. It's about taking in the information and then doing the extra work, whether that's studying video analysis of some games back to see what you could have done better or you could have implemented that he wanted you to put in. Then it's taking it from there, taking ownership and putting it into practice on the pitch."
"He sees me as one of the centre-backs, either right or left. That's the position he gives me the most information in and tells me what to do," he said. "Of course, you saw against Norwich that I can play in the right wing-back role if needed. I think he sees me in those roles though either side of the middle defender in the back three."
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