Eberechi Eze is expecting to be left out of Crystal Palace’s squad for Sunday’s Premier League match against Chelsea.
The England international has been heavily linked with a move to Tottenham who are desperate for attacking reinforcements.
After the collapse of Morgan Gibbs-White’s proposed move from Nottingham Forest, Thomas Frank’s desire to add to his squad was exacerbated by the season ending injury sustained by James Maddison.
Arsenal have also shown significant interest in Eze but they are likely to need to sell before they can buy again, while Ethan Nwaneri’s decision to extend his contract has lessened the need to sign another central attacker.
Spurs are yet to strike an agreement with Palace but are understood to be increasingly confident of landing a player who is valued at around £68m.
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Palace begin their Premier League campaign at Stamford Bridge tomorrow, but are likely to do so without their talisman, according to The Sun.
The FA Cup and Community Shield holders are, however, already making contingency plans and have, as per The Athletic, approached Leicester City to explore a potential move for Bilal El Khannouss.
Morocco international, El Khannouss, ehnanced his burgeoning reputation with a superb individual display in last weekend’s win over Sheffield Wednesday, registering two assists.
The 21-year-old is understood to be keen on a move to Selhurst Park but Leicester are reluctant to let their prize asset depart just 12 months on from his £19m arrival from Genk.
Spurs, meanwhile, are also showing interest in Manchester City’s out of favour winger Savinho, but Frank refused to be drawn on the subject speaking ahead of Saturday’s game against Burnley.
He said: ‘First and foremost, in many ways, I’m very happy with the squad. I think there’s a lot of good players.
#I think we saw a team that was very, very, very competitive (against PSG) and on any other day we would have beaten the best team in Europe.
‘Of course, we want as strong and competitive a squad as possible. I know that Daniel (Levy), Johan (Lange) and Vinai (Venkatesham) are working night and day, and they have, by the way, been working night and day the last, whatever, six, seven, eight weeks.
‘They definitely would like to do deals early. Sometimes, I think we need to understand it’s not that easy, but they’re working.’