Gomes poised for Spurs

Fiorentina need to sell to ease financial problems

Tottenham Hotspur hope to sign Portugal international striker Nuno Gomes within the next 48 hours, according to reports.

A Florence court placed Fiorentina, now in Serie B, in administration in June and the club need to sell to help sort out their perilous financial position.

Spurs deny clear-out

"There could be developments in the next few days," Fiorentina sports director Giuseppe Pavone told the Sunday Express newspaper.

Gomes' former club Benfica have offered to take him on loan, but Fiorentina are only interested in a permanent deal.

"We don't want to loan the player as Benfica want," added Pavone.

"We won't change our position on that. We'll sell the player if we receive a good offer.

"We spent about £10m on Gomes. It would not make sense to loan him out now."

Gomes, 26, was a member of the Portuguese World Cup squad that failed to qualify from the group phase of the competition.

And Spurs boss Glenn Hoddle is keen to strengthen his options in attack.

Chris Armstrong is out of contract and has not been offered a new deal, while Norwegian Steffen Iversen has suffered from terrible injury problems during his spell at White Hart Lane.

Sergei Rebrov is out of favour at the club while Teddy Sheringham, now 35, and Les Ferdinand, 36, are in the latter stages of their careers.

Spurs have acquired just two players since the end of the season, signing both Jamie Redknapp and Slovakia's Milenko Acimovic on free transfers.

But Spurs are also expected to complete later this week the £800,000 signing of Belgian youngster Jonathan Blondel from Excelsior Mouscron on a four-year contract.