Serie A champions Napoli are reportedly hoping to hijack Tottenham Hotspur's move for Genoa centre-back Radu Dragusin.
The Romania international is believed to have emerged as Spurs' top defensive target for the winter transfer window as Ange Postecoglou seeks solutions to his side's rearguard injury crisis.
Tottenham recently lost Cristian Romero to a hamstring injury which will keep the Argentine out for a number of weeks, while Micky van de Ven has not played since sustaining a similar problem at the start of November.
Van de Ven was back on the bench for Friday's 1-0 FA Cup win over Burnley, but he was an unused substitute throughout as Ben Davies and Emerson Royal were forced to play out of position again.
While Van de Ven is now fit again, Postecoglou revealed that Davies picked up a hamstring injury of his own in the beating of the Clarets, which could keep the Welshman out for a while.
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In addition, 18-year-old Ashley Phillips is yet to make his first-team debut, while Eric Dier is out of contract in six months' time and is said to have agreed terms over a January move to Bayern Munich, although the two clubs have not shaken hands on a fee.
Dier was also absent from Tottenham's squad to face Burnley due to injury, and Postecoglou issued a spiky response when asked if the links to Bayern had anything to do with the 29-year-old's omission.
Even if Dier's proposed switch to Bayern falls through, he would be expected to depart when his deal runs out in the summer, and Tottenham are supposedly pushing to finalise a January deal for Dragusin.
However, the 21-year-old's agent recently played down talk of a move to the Premier League for his client, and according to ESPN, Napoli are now rivalling Tottenham for Dragusin's services.
The Italian champions could reportedly try to strike a player-plus-cash deal for the Genoa man, which would likely extinguish Spurs' chances of succeeding with a fee in the £20m to £25m range.
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Napoli's interest would allow Genoa to up their asking price for Dragusin, whose contract runs until 2027, but the report claims that Tottenham are still optimistic about their chances of winning the race for the 6ft 3in defender.
Dragusin, who is understood to be open to joining Postecoglou's side despite his agent's recent comments, came through the Juventus youth system and also represented Sampdoria and Salernitana before joining Genoa on loan in 2022.
The 21-year-old played a fundamental role in Il Grifone's promotion back to Serie A for the 2023-24 season and has seamlessly adapted to life in the top flight, scoring two goals and providing one assist in 19 Serie A games this season.
Dragusin's total for Genoa now stands at six goals and one assist from 61 matches, and the Romania international also helped his nation reach the Euro 2024 Finals with an unbeaten qualifying record of six wins and four draws in Group I.
At the other end of the field, Tottenham are believed to be on the brink of signing RB Leipzig attacker Timo Werner on loan for the remainder of the season, having recently lost Son Heung-min to Asian Cup duty and Alejo Veliz to a serious knee injury.
Ben Knapton
