Tottenham pull ahead of West Ham for loan of Barcelona midfielder

There’s an update on the Andre Gomes situation. According to Matt Law in the Telegraph, Tottenham Hotspur are now the favorites to sign Barcelona midfielder Andre Gomes on a season-long loan, ahead of Premier League rivals West Ham United.

Gomes is a Portuguese international midfielder who helped Portugal win the Euros last summer. He played primarily as a passing midfielder at Valencia, but moved to Barcelona and basically flamed out. He’s ready for a chance of scenery and Barcelona are apparently happy for him to head out on a free season long loan. Presumably there’s an option to buy, but we don’t really know. He’s currently on £80k/week at Barça and one would guess Spurs would be on the hook for his wages.

This would be pretty obviously a depth signing. Gomes can play either as a central midfielder or in a more attacking role, but I don’t see him breaking into the side above any of Spurs’ current midfield options. This might also be a potential break-glass-in-case-Barkley-falls-through kind of move for Spurs.

It seems as though a player like Gomes would take away minutes from Harry Winks in the center of midfield, or possibly as a pass-forward Christian Eriksen rotation option. I dunno, because he hasn’t exactly been great at Barça so it’s a bit of an odd duck of a rumor. The price is right, though!

UPDATE (12:10PM EST): Reports are coming out now that this isn’t a loan and Spurs may be willing to take Gomes on permanently. Now, take this with the entire salt mine, but the Daily Mail have this: