Tottenham Hotspur could have landed striker Michy Batshuayi on transfer deadline day, but Chelsea demanded an £8 million loan fee to send the attacker to Spurs, according to the Mirror.
In truth, the fact that no new arrivals turned up at the North London club on Thursday will come as little surprise to the fans.
However, there were some rumblings that Tottenham could look to sign a striker given that both Harry Kane and Dele Alli are currently injured and unavailable.
Batshuayi has not been given a chance at Chelsea but has shown in his time at Marseille and Borussia Dortmund that he can be a prolific centre forward if trusted to play regularly.
While the Belgian would have added to Mauricio Pochettino’s options in the final third, Tottenham were fully justified in telling their London rivals to keep walking.
The report suggests that Chelsea asked Spurs for a ludicrous loan fee that was four times higher than what they requested from West Ham.
Tottenham were never going to get any favours from a top-four rival and in truth, if the club wanted a new striker, alternative options should have been identified well before it got down to deadline day.
Regardless of the cost of the new stadium, bringing in a number of players on loan in January to add depth for the rest of the season would have been relatively inexpensive and sensible.
Seeing Youri Tielemans join Leicester when he could have been on loan at Tottenham is hard to take, while the club should have added a striker on a temporary deal to take pressure off Fernando Llorente.
The club’s transfer policy at the minute is driven by financial concerns, which simply do not align with any ambition of silverware or achievement.
It’s frustrating for the fans and surely for Pochettino too. Leaving it to deadline day before making inquiries, only to be patronised by one of our major rivals, doesn’t seem like an acceptable strategy.