Spurs interested in AS Roma defender | OneFootball

According to a recent report from RomaForever, Tottenham Hotspur have expressed an interest in signing AS Roma central defender Gianluici Mancini, stating that Spurs "really like" the player.

Spurs linked with a move to AS Roma and Italian national team defender

It is suggested that the club are willing to pay 18 million Euros - 15 million pounds - for the defender, which would be enough for the Italian side to part ways with the player after six years spent in Rome.

Should he swap the Italian capital for the English capital, he would be joining his compatriots Guglielmo Vicario and Destiny Udogie. Although he has never played with the latter, both of Vicario's first two caps for the Italy national team came with Mancini starting in defence.

Outside of Italians, Spurs have also made a number of other signings from Serie A, with the likes of Cristian Romero, Rodrigo Bentancur, and Dejan Kulusevski signed in recent years. Pretty good success rate.

Back at the end of November, the 28-year old played 90 minutes for Roma in their 2-2 draw against Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the Europa League. In that game, he played on the right hand side of a back three - a role he has played in the majority of his games for Roma.

In terms of style, he is a very aggressive player, perhaps too much for his and his team's own good at times. In the 21/22 season, he picked up fourteen yellow cards in just 33 Serie A games. Although his disciplinary record has since improved, the lowest number he has picked up in a full season has been seven.

Realistically, Mancini is not the most athletic defender. He is not super immobile, but is not overly quick. It would be interesting to see how he would cope defending on the half way line in the Premier League. However, as touched on above, he has played as a wide defender in a back three, which means plenty of defending in wide areas, and having that experience would serve him well.

If you're an intelligent player who reads the game well, you can get away with a lack of pace when defending these areas. For example, someone like Harry Maguire is pretty immobile, but has a number of top performances playing in wide areas and on the half way line, owing to how smart a player he is.