If Tottenham Hotspur can get Ganso for £8 million...

It has been a frenetic couple of weeks at Tottenham, and even though the transfer window is closed the speculation gathers apace.

The futures of Jermaine Jenas and Tom Huddlestone have been debated, with talk the former could be loaned out and the latter even bought out of his contract.

Forget the potential outgoings for a moment though, because the headline news from the weekend's papers was Tottenham being linked with Brazilian midfielder Ganso for as little as £8 million.

The 22-year-old was previously touted as the South American country's brightest prospect, and although he has been usurped in the national team by teenage upstarts Lucas Moura and Oscar, he remains a terrific talent.

His progress was stunted by a knee injury in mid-2010, but he has come back from it and remains an important part of the Santos side.

For his liking, not important enough. He has a contract until 2015, but wants a new one to match that of Brazilian football's poster-boy Neymar. And that is unlikely to be forthcoming.

Having seen Moura and Oscar agree deals to head to Europe, Ganso will no doubt be of the mind that to raise his game and compete on the same level with his rivals for La Selecao a switch to Europe will be his best option anyway.

Over the course of his short career so far he has been linked with Chelsea, AC Milan, Manchester United, and most recently, Arsenal.

He is player Tottenham's worldwide scouting network will be well aware of, having already picked up Sandro from the Brazilian league in 2009, and offering a trial to young defender Bruno Uvini in February.

Now if Ganso is available at a knockdown price, there is every reason to believe Tottenham's interest is genuine. Why not?

Having lost one playmaker in Rafael van der Vaart, the younger Ganso would be a smart addition to their side, and at £8 millionthe player who scored three goals and assisted three others in 12 Copa Libertadores games in 2012 would be a snip.

That is the issue, whether the low price tag as reported by the Mirror is genuine. 45 per cent of Ganso's rights are owned by a third party, meaning Santos will get just over half of any fee. They are unlikely to be happy with just over £4.5 million for their key midfielder, who still has three years left on his contract.

There has been a lot of bizarre speculation this past week with Neymar and Damiao both linked to Manchester United, seemingly without any substance behind it, and the Ganso story could just be another.

If it was true, and Spurs could snap him up for as little as £8 million, they should get the chequebook out right away and start trying to do business.

image: © jikatu