Ivan Perisic is holding out for one of his two favourite shirt numbers at Tottenham Hotspur this summer after joining, football.london understands.
The 33-year-old Croatia international signed for Spurs on Tuesday on a two-year deal which will begin after his current contract at Inter Milan ends this summer. Antonio Conte managed the Champions League, Serie A and Bundesliga winner in Italy and the experienced wide man was one of the head coach's first requested targets for Tottenham this summer.
Spurs unveiled Perisic to an excited Spurs fanbase but some of the supporters noticed that there was one thing missing from the announcement - the shirt number that the Croatian will wear when he takes to the pitch for the north London outfit.
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The reason for that, football.london understands, is that Perisic is willing to hold out for a couple of months in order to see whether one of his two preferred numbers, which are currently in use, becomes available. Throughout almost all of of his long career, Perisic has worn either the number 14 or 44, aside from his time at Wolfsburg where he was their number nine and his first two years in professional football when he was 22 and 4 at KSV Roeselare and Sochaux-Montbeliard B respectively.
He also wears the number four for Croatia in international matches, although that shirt at Tottenham is held by on-loan defender Cristian Romero, who will sign permanently this summer from Atalanta.
At Spurs, both of the players who wear 14 and 44 are expected to head off next season to get minutes elsewhere. Wales international defender Joe Rodon wears 14 and is set for a move this summer, either on loan or permanently, in order to play regular football. The holder of the number 44 shirt is talented young striker Dane Scarlett and the 18-year-old is expected to head out on loan next season to continue his development.
There is plenty of time for Perisic to wait to see if one of those numbers becomes available and even if Scarlett were to remain at Tottenham the teenager may well want to move up the squad numbers next season. Spurs' pre-season training begins next month and in the two pre-season matches in Korea, the game at Rangers and in Israel against Roma, one to 11 match numbers are likely to be used rather than official squad numbers. That gives Perisic plenty of time to see what happens with his two favourite shirt numbers before the Premier League season begins on August 6.
Perisic, who suffered a calf injury on the final day of the Serie A season but is expected to be fit in time for the early days of pre-season, is excited about what is to come at Tottenham after finally landing his dream move to the Premier League this week.
"I'm really excited to start with the Spurs family. It's going to be my home for the next two years," he admitted to Spurs TV. "When I got in contact with the coach and the Sporting Director [Fabio Paratici], I told them that I really wanted to come here in the Premier League, since 2009 when I started to play professional football in Belgium. This is the moment and I can't wait."
On his reunion with Conte he added: "It's a privilege to work with a coach like this. We did well [at Inter], we won the league after ten or 11 years. It was really a perfect year. Yeah, I am really happy to see him again. He's living football, every minute, every hour, every day, even when he's sleeping, he's thinking about football. I like his character and I know we're going to do a great job here.
Perisic admitted that he watched Tottenham's final few games, which included the 3-0 victory in the North London Derby: "Yeah I was waiting last two or three games, I was watching. After the victory against Arsenal, it was obvious that Tottenham will go in the Champions League. It was also good for me because I want to play the best game, I want to do great job in the Champions League, like in the Premier League."
The wide man spoke about his versatility in Conte's system, saying: "I'm going to bring a lot of hard work because I like to work a lot, I like to work for the team and because only like this you can win something important. I can play several positions in the system what Tottenham is playing now and I will bring also a lot of experience because I used to play for a lot of great clubs. Like I said, I can't wait to start to play and to train and to give my best.
"It was always my dream to play in all the best five leagues in the world and Premier League was the missing puzzle and now I'm here and I want to do my best, like I did before in all other leagues. My hope is it's going to be perfect. I can't wait to start. Come on you Spurs."
