According to reports, Tottenham Hotspur recently had a bid rejected for AS Roma centre-back Roger Ibanez.

The report by Voce Giallorossa (via Sport Witness) claims that Ilario Di Giovambattista revealed both Tottenham and Leicester City made recent offers of €30m (£25.7m) for Ibanez, who just signed a permanent deal with Roma having initially been on loan from fellow Italian outfit Atalanta.

According to Di Giovambattista, both Jose Mourinho and Brendan Rodgers have been tracking the £18m-rated centre-back for some time and will continue to do so despite the 22-year-old officially becoming a Roma player in recent weeks.

Transfer Tavern Take

Considering that Ibanez has impressed over his 22 Serie A appearances for Paulo Fonseca's side this season, with the defender's average WhoScored match rating of 6.92 ranking him as the club's sixth-best performer in the Italian top flight, the claim that Spurs have been keeping tabs on the Brazilian is not overly surprising, considering Mourinho's desire to sign a new centre-back last summer.

However, it is more difficult to believe that the club would have offered a large sum of money for Ibanez in the January transfer window, as the Tottenham manager himself stated the club would not likely be doing any business in the winter market.

Indeed, Sport Witness suggested that Di Giovambattista's claims could well be an attempt to make Roma's business appear in a better light with the club's supporters, which seems a much more plausible scenario.

In other news: Tottenham are also monitoring this attacker, find out more here.