Spurs want Spanish forward at White Hart Lane.
Tottenham have made Malaga forward Isco their top summer target – provided they can secure Champions League football for next season.
Isco, 20, has emerged as one of the hottest properties in Europe with his performances for Malaga in La Liga and Europe this season, helping Manuel Pellegrini’s side to fifth in the league and the Champions League quarter-final.
Spurs sent head of youth development Tim Sherwood to scout Isco last summer but declined making a bid for the Spanish international.
But after the patchy form of both Clint Dempsey and Gylfi Sigurdsson this season, head-coach Andre Villas-Boas has instructed his chairman Daniel Levy to sign Isco this summer. It is believed the club’s pursuit of the playmaker is dependent on finishing in the Premier League top four and securing Champions League football for next season.
Villas-Boas is attracted by Isco’s ability to play both centrally and on the left wing, particularly with Gareth Bale increasingly playing behind in the hole.
Isco, who has scored 11 goals in 37 appearances for the Spaniards this season, is also being tracked by Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea and Barcelona.
The player only signed a new contract in January, which increased his release-clause to £29.9m, almost double Spurs’ record transfer fee – the £16m spent on David Bentley in 2008.
But the north London outfit are hopeful that Malaga will agree to sell their prize asset for considerably less, particularly with the mismanaged club banned from European competition, when they next qualify, for at least one year following a series of unpaid bills.