Tottenham face a race against time to sell Christian Eriksen before Thursday's deadline - after which they will be forced to settle for cut-price bids.
Eriksen, 27, has just a year left on his contract and continues to refuse to sign a new deal.
Chairman Daniel Levy has valued him at a staggering £130million but he could have no choice but to sell for less than half that amount after Thursday's 5pm deadline.
After that point English clubs will no longer be allowed to sign players while the transfer window across Europe will have another three weeks to run before it closes on September 2.
Since Eriksen's admission at the end of last season that he'd be up for a move to Real Madrid , Spurs have been in talks to sign at a new goalscoring midfielder.
They intend to land either Sporting's Bruno Fernandes or Giovani Lo Celso from Real Betis before Thursday with the new man set to get priority in the team over Eriksen.
The Dane has had interest from likes of Juventus and Atletico Madrid but the bid he'd hoped for from Real has yet to materialise with the Spanish club so far more keen on Manchester United 's Paul Pogba and Ajax star Donny van Der Beek.
That could change after Thursday with all three clubs, along with Inter Milan, set to try and drive the price down.
Eriksen will be able to speak to foreign clubs from next January with just six months left on his contract by that point. Spurs then face losing him for nothing if he is not sold this summer.
It means the club will take a proactive stance in the remaining weeks of the window with Mauricio Pochettino likely to leave the Denmark international on the bench.