Bentaleb seals £1m season-long loan move to Schalke

TOTTENHAM midfielder Nabil Bentaleb today completed a year-long loan move to German side Schalke.

The 21-year-old midfielder trained with his new team-mates for the first time this morning after passing a medical yesterday in Gelsenkirchen.

Schalke have paid Spurs just under £1million for an initial loan fee and have an option to buy Bentaleb for around £17m.

Bentaleb, who has been capped 19 times by Algeria, did not feature much for Mauricio Pochettino’s side last season in a campaign blighted by injury. He has not trained with the first team since July after the Spurs head coach told him he was not in his plans.

Bentaleb will be joined by a familiar face at Schalke, with former Spurs team-mate Benjamin Stambouli also expected to move to the club on a permanent deal from Paris St Germain in the next few days.

Schalke, however, this morning denied reports that they are interested in Tottenham forward Heung-Min Son.

Their comments came after fellow Bundesliga side Wolfsburg confirmed they did want to sign the South Korea international. Wolfsburg’s sporting director Klaus Allofs spoke of their interest in Son yesterday.

“Whether it was his time at Bayer Leverkusen or now at Tottenham, we were always in contact with him,” said Allofs.

When asked about the chance of tieing up a possible deal for Son, Allofs said it was “all or nothing” but that in this case, “the nothing is likelier”.

Allofs is well aware Wolfsburg will face competition from clubs in England and Spain to sign Son, while Spurs are looking to recoup the £22m they paid for him last summer. Son is yet to play for Spurs at all this season, having featured for South Korea at the Olympic Games in Rio.

Meanwhile, Spurs have finally reached an agreement with Espanyol for Pau Lopez.

Spurs will pay £500,000 for the goalkeeper’s loan until the end of the season and have an option to sign him permanently at the end of his spell for £6m.

Lopez is expected to arrive in London this weekend to carry out a medical.Espanyol had previously rejected three offers from Spurs for the Spain Under-21 international as they played hardball over the terms of his transfer.