Tottenham approach Angel Di Maria over summer free transfer

Tottenham Hotspur could bring former Manchester United winger Angel Di Maria back to the Premier League after kicking off talks over a possible free transfer at the end of the season.

Di Maria will turn 33 next month but is still one of Paris Saint-Germain’s most important players and will be out of contract at the French club come summer.

A report from L’Equipe notes that PSG want to keep the player, but talks over a new contract have failed to yield an agreement. They are said to have made an offer last year that Di Maria rejected because a pay cut on his €250,000 per week wages was proposed.

The Argentina international is believed to be seeing a two-year deal that would take him to his 35th birthday. The suggestion is that he would be happy to stay with PSG because he and his family are settled in the Paris – something he never managed in 12 months in Manchester.

But if the terms of contract are not right there may be an opening and Spurs are said to be the first club that has got in touch with Di Maria’s camp to express interest.

Di Maria infamously spent the 2014/15 with Manchester United following a British record £59.7m transfer from Real Madrid. He had starred at the 2014 World Cup with Argentina and had finished the previous club season with a Man of the Match performance in the Champions League final.

He started the campaign in stunning form, but those performances dried up. It quickly became apparent that he had never wanted to leave Madrid, while a struggle to adapt to complex systems demanded by Louis van Gaal and inability to settle off the pitch made life tough.

United cut their losses after only one season, selling to PSG for only £45m and Di Maria has since returned to being one of the top attacking players in the world.

Spurs were previously linked with Di Maria way back in 2013. A year later he revealed that the speculation ‘hurt’ him because he had so keen to remain at Real.

But Di Maria has, of course, worked with Spurs manager Jose Mourinho before. It was Mourinho that was in charge at the Bernabeu when the player made the switch from Benfica in 2010 and in 2013 he credited the coach for making him a better player.

“He showed me many things and made me grow as a footballer. He helped me to move into a different position, to sacrifice myself more for the team,” Di Maria said of Mourinho back then.

“I'm very grateful to him. He told me that, at Real, I was a forward that could also defend and that I couldn't rest when they were on the attack.”

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