Tottenham Hotspur face mounting competition from Chelsea for Ross Barkley but do not want to pay more than £25million for the Everton midfielder.

Everton valued Barkley at £50m at the start of the transfer window, despite the fact the 23-year-old only has one year to run on his contract.

Manager Ronald Koeman has since claimed Barkley’s Everton career is over and the player has not featured in pre-season, due in part to him requiring surgery on a groin injury.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy believes Barkley’s contract situation, together with Koeman’s admission he will go and the injury has significantly pushed his value down.

Levy thinks that, with less than a month of the transfer window remaining, he can land Barkley for half of Everton’s original asking price.

Daniel Levy is renowned for doing late business in the transfer window credit: Getty Images

But Spurs are facing the increased threat that Chelsea will rival their bid to sign Barkley, with the Premier League champions now seriously considering making a move of their own.

Head coach Antonio Conte has been promised that Chelsea will sign a minimum of three more players before the end of the transfer window and the Italian wants at least one new wing back, a midfielder and a forward player.

Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia has spoken to Leicester City about Danny Drinkwater, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s situation at Arsenal is being monitored as the versatile midfielder only has 12 months remaining on his deal.

But, just as Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino believes, there is a feeling inside Stamford Bridge that Barkley could prove to be the bargain of the transfer window in which prices have been hugely inflated.

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Chelsea would have no problem in paying Barkley over £100,000-a-week, but Conte may not be able to promise the same playing opportunities as Pochettino whose track record for promoting young English players is attractive.

Manchester United are also monitoring Barkley, but have not yet shown the same level of interest as Tottenham and Chelsea.

Tottenham are yet to make a single signing during the summer, despite selling Kyle Walker to Manchester City for £50m.

But Pochettino is confident he will land three new players before the transfer window shuts and Barkley has been one of his priority targets since the end of last season.

Other than Barkley, Pochettino wants a new right-back to help cover Walker’s departure, but Spurs are not currently actively pursuing Valencia’s Joao Cancelo.

Joao Cancelo is viewed by Spurs as a possible Kyle Walker replacement credit: EPA

Hoffenheim’s £13m-rated Jeremy Toljan is considered a more realistic right-back target for Spurs, while both Cancelo and Paris Saint-Germain’s Serge Aurier are of interest to Chelsea.

Conte and Pochettino reiterated their desire to bring in new players before the transfer window shuts, with the Chelsea man saying: “I hope to be able to improve our squad. The transfer market is not finished. We want to be competitive and we want to fight for the title again. The club knows my priorities.”

On Tottenham’s hunt for new blood, Pochettino said: “We need players who can challenge our starting XI, players who believe in themselves and think ‘OK, I can challenge Dele Alli, I can challenge Harry Kane’.

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“We need to bring new energy and strengthen our squad, everyone knows that. If you look at the history of Tottenham in the last few years, we always spend at the end of the window.

“Chairman Daniel Levy is working hard with the chief scout (Steve Hitchen), we are working hard to deliver and try to add the strength we need to fight in four competitions next season.

“The market is a little bit crazy, but you cannot stop the evolution of football. It is not easy to improve, but we will find the right players to challenge.”