Tottenham Hotspur are looking to step up their pursuit of Manchester City midfielder James McAtee, journalist Sebastien Vidal has revealed.

The Lilywhites are reportedly ‘making moves’ for the England U21 international, who has no shortage of suitors across Europe amid his likely exit from the Etihad Stadium.

Tottenham could face competition from Premier League rivals Newcastle, Brighton, Everton, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest, as well as Bundesliga giants Bayer Leverkusen, for the talented 21-year-old.

McAtee is unlikely to have a long-term future at Man City after struggling for regular minutes under Pep Guardiola this season and has just over a year left on his contract, which runs until June 2026.

Tottenham to Step Up James McAtee Interest

Looking to advance past Premier League competition

According to Vidal, Man City are open to McAtee’s departure this summer, and their stance has put a host of Premier League sides on alert, including Spurs.

McAtee, praised as ‘special’, has made just nine starts for Man City across all competitions this season, with three of those coming in the Premier League.

He has been productive in under 1,000 minutes of game time, scoring seven goals in 27 total appearances.

McAtee was targeted by Leverkusen in January, but City rejected the reigning Bundesliga champions’ loan bid, which included an option to buy for £25m.

He spent last season on loan at Sheffield United in the Championship, scoring five goals and providing four assists in 32 appearances.

James McAtee’s Man City Stats (2024/25 Premier League)
Games	15
Goals	3
Assists	0
Goal-creating actions	1
Minutes played	349

Former Arsenal star admits he wanted to sign for Tottenham

Not many players have walked the North London divide between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur in the past.

Prior to Sol Campbell’s infamous move from Tottenham to Arsenal in 2001, Pat Jennings was the most high-profile player to cross the divide before that and that happened way back in 1977.

A number of players have played for both clubs before and since Campbell’s move, with Rohan Ricketts and William Gallas swapping red for white directly.

Emmanuel Adebayor and David Bentley also played for Arsenal first, before moving to Tottenham later in their careers.

But there could have been another player who decided to move between the two clubs, long before the Campbell controversy.

Former England striker Tony Woodcock made 131 appearances for Arsenal in four years during the 1980s. he won their player of the season award in 1982/83 and was the club’s top scorer in that season and the following two campaigns.

But in 1986 he wanted to leave and he has admitted he was so angry with the Gunners that he wanted to join their arch rivals Tottenham to make a point.

Speaking on the Grumpy Old Men of Football podcast, he said: “I came to Arsenal. I signed a four-year contract, and it came up again.

In those days, you couldn’t offer a player a penny less, or it would be a free transfer.

I get my renewal, which was absolutely crazy, they said I’d agreed on things I hadn’t agreed on.

“I’d signed a contract, a blank contract, if you can’t trust Arsenal who can you trust after being there for four years?

It came back and went to the tribunal. I won the case.

“I should’ve signed and stayed at Arsenal, but I was so angry about what had happened that I wanted to play for Spurs.

I negotiated with Tottenham, Tottenham wanted me at the time, but Arsenal said you’re not going there in any way whatsoever, so I went back to Koln.”

Woodcock would spend four years in Germany, with two years at Koln and then two years at Fortuna Koln.

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