Supporters haven’t seen a lot of Gedson Fernandes since he joined on loan from Benfica and it’s unlikely he’ll feature much this season given all the competition for places. The 21-year-old struggled for playing time in his debut campaign and has yet to feature in 2020/21, but why?
Why haven’t we seen Fernandes?
Despite being a versatile player who can operate on the wing and central midfield, Gedson can’t get a game for us. He’s currently behind Harry Winks, Dele Alli, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Moussa Sissoko and Tanguy Ndombele in the midfield pecking order and finds himself behind Gareth Bale, Steven Bergwijn, Lucas Moura, Erik Lamela and Heung-min Son in the winger pecking order.
He featured a lot in pre-season, playing a full 90 minutes in our 3-0 win over Ipswich Town (August 22), 45 minutes in our 4-1 win over Reading (August 28) and 90 minutes in our 1-0 win over Birmingham City (August 29). Gedson was left out of the matchday squad in our 1-0 defeat to Everton (September 13) and 2-1 win over Lokomotiv Plovdiv (September 17), however, so Jose Mourinho clearly wasn’t convinced with what he saw.
Permanent deal looks unlikely
As per Football.London, Mourinho was working with Fernandes to turn him into a right-back, but Matt Doherty’s arrival and Serge Aurier still being here makes it unlikely that Gedson would even feature in the role. If he isn’t getting a game for us this season, it’s unlikely we will seek to turn his move permanent.
The 21-year-old has made a total of 12 appearances in all competitions for Tottenham, amassing less than 300 minutes of playing time, only 61 of which came in the Premier League. Gedson’s loan could be cut short if he’s going to be on the periphery, so we may have a big decision to make on his future.
Summary
Fernandes hasn’t set the place alight in North London and has a lot of work to do to get into the first-team, but it’s still early days. There are a lot of games remaining this season, so time is on his side to impress.
In other news, Gareth Bale has only just returned to Tottenham and he’s already injured