Tottenham are trying to drive down Inter Milan’s asking price for centre-half Milan Skriniar as Jose Mourinho admits he is determined to improve the balance of his squad before the transfer market closes.
Mourinho wants Skriniar, who is keen on a move to White Hart Lane and Inter boss Antonio Conte is looking to generate funds in order to make another attempt to prise N’Golo Kante away from Chelsea.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy will be confident of beating down the £46million asking price for the 25-year-old Slovakia international who is not expected to start for Conte’s side as they begin the Serie A campaign against Fiorentina.
“The market is open, we have a good squad,” said Mourinho. “Can we have a better squad than we have now? Yes we can. Is the club trying to build that balanced squad that we all want, yes we are trying. Let’s see if that’s possible.”
Key to the balancing operation is Levy’s ability to sell those players surplus to requirements, such as Serge Aurier, Danny Rose, Juan Foyth and Cameron Carter-Vickers.
Mourinho also remains keen to sign another centre-forward because he wants to play Son Heung-min from the wider areas of the pitch.
Son, having scored four at Southampton on Sunday, led the line in Thursday’s 3-1 win in the Europa League qualifier against Shkendija, until Harry Kane came off the bench in the second half.
“He is not a striker so playing against a low block team like Shkendija was not easy for him,” said Mourinho. “When Harry came to the game and Sonny started coming from the left it’s more his natural habitat.”
Spurs are among the clubs linked with Napoli’s Arkadiusz Milik, who wants a contract worth £160,000 a week.