Tottenham Hotspur journalist Alasdair Gold expects the club to allow Pierluigi Gollini to return to Atalanta and delay their pursuit of a successor for Hugo Lloris until 2023.
The lowdown
Spurs signed Gollini on a season-long loan from Atalanta last summer, when Nuno Espirito Santo was the manager.
Under the agreement, The Lilywhites have the option to buy the 27-year-old at the end of the season.
Gollini has made ten appearances for the club, all of them coming in European competition or the domestic cups.
Even then, Antonio Conte favoured Lloris for the first leg of the EFL Cup semifinal against Chelsea, as well as the FA Cup fifth-round tie at Middlesbrough.
It’s believed that the optional fee is in the region of £13million.
The latest
Asked if Gollini is likely to stay, Gold told Football London readers that he can’t ‘see much sense’ for either party ‘in making the deal permanent’.
‘There’s no real sense,’ he says, that Gollini would be in a position to take over from Lloris in 2022/23.
Parting ways with the Italian could see Spurs bring in a new back-up ‘keeper, but Gold says he’d be ‘surprised’ if anyone gave up ‘regular first team football elsewhere’ to serve as Lloris’ understudy.
As such, a successful move for West Brom’s Sam Johnstone is unlikely.
The journalist’s expectation is that Spurs will look to recruit a long-term heir to the veteran skipper ‘the following summer’.
The verdict
Gollini may have to find a new club this summer regardless.
In preparation for his loan departure, Atalanta shelled out £18million on a new no. 1 in the form of Joan Musso.
The ‘excellent’ Gollini won praise in pre-season from former Spurs man Graham Roberts for his ‘fantastic positioning’ and ‘great distribution’, and team-mate Eric Dier has called him ‘amazing’.
But clearly Spurs haven’t seen enough to think he can genuinely challenge Lloris, who tellingly signed a new contract in January with his old deal set to expire.
In other news, a medical expert has shared his verdict on Ryan Sessegnon.