Tottenham rejected late chance to sign £71m star in January, now he plays in Russia

Fabrizio Romano says Tottenham Hotspur turned down the opportunity to sign a former Premier League striker in the dying stages of the January window.

We are continuing to see the fallout from Tottenham’s uninspiring January window, where Conor Gallagher and Souza were the only two senior players to arrive through the door.

Many Spurs fans are livid that more signings were not made in January, especially given the club’s bloated injury list.

According to reports, Cristian Romero has decided to leave Tottenham after the Spurs captain aired his frustration on deadline day about the fact that the Lilywhites had just 11 fit players against Manchester City.

Tottenham passed up on a late opportunity to sign Jhon Duran

In the final days of transwindowdiow, it emerged that Tottenham were offered an opportunity to sign Jhon Duran, who completed a £71m move to Al-Nassr from Aston Villa in January of 2025.

Duran was loaned out to Fenerbahce last summer, but it was claimed that he was looking for a different club after things in Turkey had not gone according to plan.

Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that Spurs did have an opportunity to secure the Colombian international but decided against the move.

Romano said on the Here We Go Podcast: “Tottenham were offered the possibility to sign John Duran on loan from Fenerbahce, who is on loan from Al-Nassr. He was offered to Tottenham as a last-minute chance for Spurs. The club decided against it.

“It was a possibility that was offered because some people in the industry thought that Tottenham were going to break the loan for Randal Kolo Muani to go to Juventus from Paris Saint-Germain.

“So that was a possibility, but Tottenham decided to continue with Kolo Muani. He started the last two games, so they decided to trust the player and turn down the opportunity to sign Duran, who was keen on this possibility.”

Fast forward to Thursday and Duran is about to sign for Zenit St Petersburg in Russia on loan from Al-Nassr after terminating his loan to Fenerbahce.

Why Spurs opted against any deadline day signings

After the closure of the transfer window, one report explained why Tottenham chose not to panic buy in the latter stages of the January window.

It was claimed that Spurs decided to keep their powder dry for an ‘ambitious’ summer spending spree instead.

This was subsequently backed up by the club’s sporting director, Johan Lange, who said that Tottenham only wanted to sign players who would genuinely improve their squad, and there was a shortage of such players on the market in what was a quiet transfer window across Europe.

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