Nabil Bentaleb’s Tottenham career looks to be over as Schalke want to turn his season-long loan spell into a permanent deal.
The midfielder has been with the Bundesliga club since the start of the season after Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino made it clear that Bentaleb was not part of his first-team plans.
Now, Algerian news outlet “?Liberte Algerie claim that Schalke are set to make Bentaleb a permanent acquisition in the January transfer window for a fee of around £17m.
Bentaleb has made 10 appearances for Schalke in all competitions, and registered his first three goals for the club in the 1-1 draw and 3-0 victory over Augsburg and FSV Mainz respectively.
Such has been the form of the 21-year-old, that the German outfit now want to make him a permanent addition to the first-team squad at the Veltins-Arena as soon as possible, and Tottenham will look to sanction the move at the earliest possible opportunity.
Bentaleb rose through Tottenham’s youth teams and was eventually handed a first-team opportunity by then manager Tim Sherwood when he made his senior bow for the club as a 50th minute substitute in the Premier League encounter with Southampton in December 2013.
He went on to appear a further 19 times for the Lilywhites during the course of the 2013/14 campaign, before featuring on 35 occasions the following season under Pochettino.
Liberte Algerie report Schalke have now activated the €19M option to permanently sign Nabil Bentaleb from Spurs. #THFC pic.twitter.com/SRBJGrD5DZ
However, Bentaleb found regular game time hard to come by under the Argentine last term, with Eric Dier, Moussa Dembele, Dele Alli and now-Hull City footballer Ryan Mason ahead of him in the pecking order, and made just 11 appearances in all competitions in 2015/16.
The arrival of Victor Wanyama from Southampton in the summer added further competition for places in the heart of Spurs’ midfield, and Bentaleb opted to ply his trade away from White Hart Lane on August 26 when Schalke came calling for his services.
An Algeria international, Bentaleb has been capped 20 times by his senior national side.
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