Tottenham and Manchester City interested in Lorient starlet Matteo Guendouzi

Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City have both been keeping tabs on Lorient midfielder France youth international Matteo Guendouzi ahead of the January transfer window.

Guendouzi has garnered admiration from the Premier League duo since breaking into Lorient's first-team set-up last season, and the young Frenchman has gone from strength-to-strength with the Ligue 2 side, establishing himself as a regular feature of Mickaël Landreau's side.

The 18-year-old midfielder emerged for Lorient while they were battling relegation in France's top-flight last season and has managed to flourish in the second tier of French football and on the youth international stage.

His performances have not gone unnoticed by some of Europe's bigger clubs, according to Sky Sports, with Tottenham eyeing both him and Inter Milan midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia, who is enjoying his temporary spell with high-flying Valencia, currently in impressive second place in La Liga.

A move for Kondogbia could indeed be scuppered by Los Che, who are said to have a €25m agreement for the former Monaco and Sevilla man, but Guendouzi would be a much easier target to acquire for Tottenham, who are looking for a long-term replacement for Mousa Dembele, providing they can beat interest from Manchester City.

Pep Guardiola's side boast an abundance of midfield talent which would make it extremely difficult for Guendouzi to figure at all, though given his age City would presumably incorporate him into their development squad.

But Tottenham boss Pochettino is keen to beat Guardiola's runaway Citizens and the rest of the Premier League's top six to any prospective signings and has told of his desire to see more recruits arrive in January as he bids to find a formula to overpower those with bigger budgets.

"Maybe we need to sign players in January and bring them in six months before," Pochettino said. "If not, we're going to compete in the same period as City, United, Liverpool and Chelsea, and we're going to struggle to bring in the players we want."