£62m. For a player in the final year of his contract.
Christian Eriksen has been an incredible signing for us since arriving from Ajax in 2013 for £11m, but with his deal running down, and with the added spectre of him being able to move on a free transfer next summer, the time to cash in on our Danish playmaker has come.
According to Spanish publication AS, Real Madrid are very much interested in making Eriksen the latest Spurs player to play at the Santiago Bernabeu. The report claims that Los Blancos, however, would be unwilling to go any further than £62m for the midfielder.
After the heartbreak of Saturday, it’s important Mauricio Pochettino has all the tools to go big this summer. Every player in Europe will have taken notice of our run to the Champions League final, and where before they might have been reluctant to join us, this summer could be the window where we could really make some statement signings.
The £53m bid for Giovani Lo Celso was exciting in that it came as a huge surprise, and it remains to be seen the kind of budget Daniel Levy will afford our manager. But with the money that would come in for Eriksen, there is a huge possibility that we could make a marquee signing; potentially even Wilfried Zaha perhaps.
Indeed, recent reports have suggested that we could be interested in Leicester’s James Maddison, and from what we’ve seen of him this season in his first year of playing top-flight football, he could potentially go on to be even better than Eriksen.
The former Norwich man has shown an eye for both a pass and a goal, and could be the ready-made replacement for our great Dane. Both have similarly impressive stats going forward, with the two both averaging 2.3 shots per game, whilst Maddison surprisingly edges Eriksen in terms of key passes with his 2.8 to the Spurs man’s 2.3 (as per Whoscored).
Selling Eriksen to Madrid, and then reinvesting that money in someone like Maddison would be a shrewd move on our part, and just another example of how we can be smart in the transfer market. The reality of our situation is that we’re not backed by some Sheikh like with Manchester City, or able to spend upwards of £70m on a centre-back like Liverpool.
We need to be savvy, and accepting £62m for Eriksen would represent fine business for someone who wouldn’t net us a single penny next summer.