Shakhtar Donetsk could take legal action against Tottenham Hotspur over their deal to sign Manor Solomon a free transfer, according to Fabrizio Romano.
What's the latest on Solomon?
Having already brought James Maddison through the door, as well as signing Dejan Kulusevski permanently from Juventus, Tottenham are ready to add another attacker to their forward line.
Seemingly, this will be Manor Solomon, who spent last season on loan at Fulham from Shakhtar Donetsk. The left-winger managed 24 appearances, scoring five times, but also missed a large chunk of the season after undergoing knee surgery.
Due to the conflict in Ukraine, FIFA introduced a ruling last summer that enabled foreign players who played in the country to leave their domestic clubs for free, something that was criticised by those involved in Ukrainian football.
This ruling is also influencing this summer's transfer market, with Spurs able to acquire Solomon from Shakhtar on a free transfer, despite the fact that the Israel international's deal does not officially expire until December 2023.
Shakhtar's chief executive Sergei Palkin has already threatened Tottenham with legal action over their pursuit of Solomon, telling ESPN:
"Finally, where he will go, I don't know. In any case, if you go to Tottenham, we will deal with Tottenham in court in this case. Everything comes to a simple situation: it sounds like unjust enrichment.
"Can you imagine, we pay big money for this player and finally Tottenham receives him for free? It is not fair in respect of our club. We will definitely go to court and we will fight for ourselves."
With Solomon expected to complete his medical at Spurs this week, Fabrizio Romano is still unsure on if the deal will be completed, or what will happen in terms of legal action.
What did Romano say?
Speaking on his Here We Go podcast, Romano said: "For Tottenham, exclusive news that I am tweeting right now is about Manor Solomon, who had a fantastic season at Fulham last year, did very well on loan to Fulham.
"Then what happened, he formally returned to Shakhtar Donetsk from Fulham, but the reality is that because of FIFA rules all the players returning to Shakhtar Donetsk could be available for free. Then what happens in some cases is that you can negotiate, in other cases you need to find a different kind of solution."
He continued: "In this case, Manor Solomon has an agreement with Tottenham on the contract. He will be in England next week to have his medical test, it will be early [this] next week. So, Manor Solomon has his medical booked in London to become a new Tottenham player.
"Then Shakhtar CEO, Palkin, a few weeks ago said if Tottenham complete this deal we are prepared to fight in court this Solomon story because we can't allow the player, who is worth probably £30m or £40m, to go to Tottenham for free. So, we are prepared to go to court for this story.
"So, let's see how this evolves because it is about rules, guys, it's not about transfers. It's not a normal transfer."
Whether or not the deal will be finalised remains to be seen as it may be a decision that is made in a courtroom rather than a boardroom.
One thing is for certain, if Solomon arrives in north London on a free transfer then it would be a very smart piece of business from a Spurs perspective.
Ange Postecoglou is seeing his new side do some encouraging early business in this summer's transfer window which will surely excite the Australian ahead of their pre-season tour.
There was clearly a lot of room for improvement on the back of last season, so it will be interesting to see whether this transfer activity is to continue over the coming weeks.
