Mauricio Pochettino says leaks about their transfer business makes it difficult to sign players ahead of the other top-six clubs.

Sky Sports reported in December that Spurs wanted to sign Bordeaux winger Malcom in January.

Since then, Arsenal and Manchester United have taken over the story, and Tottenham hardly seem involved.

Pochettino blamed the media for making signings more difficult to come by.

“It’s difficult to keep secrets,” Spurs’ manager moaned.

“Sometimes the media knows before me the player who we are going to sign. That makes our job difficult. How do you keep it secret? Impossible.

“Maybe someone near the player is going to talk. Maybe you make an offer and it’s used to talk with another club. It is frustrating. We can’t stop it.”

The Mirror claim Tottenham have given up on Malcom now, and they’re now focusing elsewhere. Although, The S*n write that the Brazilian would’ve turned them down for Arsenal, anyway.

Meanwhile, Wenger claimed in his pre-match press conference that the Gunners aren’t after the winger. He said: “He is a good player but nothing is happening. We are not on that case at the moment.”

In a further twist, the BBC’s David Ornstein, usually the most reliable for Arsenal transfer news, says Malcom is Arsenal’s first-choice replacement for Alexis Sanchez.

Overall, it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on.

Wenger won’t want to weaken Arsenal’s negotiating position by revealing his targets and Ornstein might have bad information.

Alternatively, they might both be telling the truth.

Arsenal might want the 20-year-old as an Alexis Sanchez replacement, but plan on keeping the Chilean in January.

If that’s the case, they might not have got on Malcom’s case yet, as Wenger says.

You can draw your own conclusions for now, we’ll hopefully know more before long.