Mauricio Pochettino is expected to shop for a central midfielder this summer after Tottenham sold Mousa Dembele to Guangzhou R&F in January. The Belgian international played a key role in the middle of the part and was let go without a replacement being signed – a decision that wasn’t too popular at the time given how influential Dembele was.
Spurs have since been linked with Tanguy Ndombele (Olympique Lyonnais), Wilmar Barrios (Zenit Saint-Petersburg), Carlos Soler (Valencia), Franck Kessie (AC Milan), Abdoulaye Doucoure (Watford), Declan Rice (West Ham United) and Adrien Rabiot (Paris Saint-Germain), but there’s a chance all of them could be overlooked. Here’s why…
Tottenham are actually overstocked in midfield if they didn’t have injuries to worry about. Pochettino has Eric Dier, Victor Wanyama, Moussa Sissoko, Harry Winks and Dele Alli at his disposal. The issue has been availability. Dier has spent the second-half of the season sidelined with various problems while Wanyama has had to slowly build his fitness back.
Spurs have shown they won’t panic buy in the transfer market just to fill positions, so it wouldn’t be a major shock if a central midfielder wasn’t brought in. The Londoners will want the best available player to improve the squad next season, otherwise Dier, Wanyama, Sissoko, Winks and Alli will have to do.
If may frustrate a lot of supporters if Tottenham made this decision, but it does make some semblance of sense.
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