Tottenham Hotspur could be allowed to take Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor on a permanent free transfer as opposed to a loan deal.
The Togolese striker joined City in a £25million deal from Arsenal in the summer of 2009 when Mark Hughes was in charge on the blue side of Manchester.
But, having fallen out of favour when Roberto Mancini took over in the December of that year, Adebayor has barely played for the club.
He spent the second half of last season on loan at Real Madrid, but the Spanish giants opted against making the move permanent.
And, following speculation linking him to several clubs this summer, it seemed that Tottenham would win the race to sign the 27-year-old on a season-long loan deal in which they would pay half of his wages.
However, fresh reports are claiming that City will allow Spurs to take Adebayor for nothing in order to get his £170,000-a-week salary from the wage bill.
That would be financially viable for Spurs as, with no hefty transfer fee and signing on bonus to shell out, they could afford to give Adebayor a deal which he currently enjoys at the Etihad Stadium.