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Is Tottenham’s pursuit of Marcel Sabitzer bad news for Steven Bergwijn?

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Tottenham aren’t short of options in attack with Steven Bergwijn, Erik Lamela, Lucas Moura and Gareth Bale, but Sport Bild say Spurs are interested in Marcel Sabitzer and may have to pay £30m for the RB Leipzig wide-man.

Sabitzer is a talented player who’s impressing in the German Bundesliga, but not everyone will be pleased by this news. Bergwijn has been short of playing time this season and could be moved on if we bring in another forward.

How good is Sabitzer?

He’s outstanding. The 26-year-old’s senior career began with Admira Wacker (2009 – 2013) and saw him make 52 appearances, scoring 10 goals with eight assists.

Sabitzer spent a year at Rapid Vienna (2013 – 2014) and made 57 appearances, scoring 12 goals with eight assists. He then joined Leipzig (2014 – present) and has gone on to make 194 appearances, scoring 45 goals with 36 assists.

The Austrian international spent a year on loan at RB Salzburg (2014 – 2015) where he made 51 appearances, scoring 27 goals with 21 assists, and he’s been a regular at Leipzig ever since.

This season, Sabizter has scored two goals and made one assist in six games – one goal contribution every 121 minutes which trumps Bergwijn (262 minutes). It’s easy to see why we’re so keen.

What’s gone wrong with Bergwijn?

The 23-year-old joined on a five-and-a-half-year deal from PSV Eindhoven in January and has gone on to make 26 appearances in all competitions, scoring three goals with three assists.

Bergwijn has made 10 appearances this season but is yet to score and has only managed two assists. He’s been left out of the matchday squad in four of our last five Premier League games and was recently sent home early by the Dutch national team due to a lack of fitness.

Despite his struggles, I don’t think he’ll be moved on so soon. If we make a move for Sabitzer, that may change. It is worth noting, however, that Bale is only on loan for the season and may need replacing if we fail to sign him permanently.

Bergwijn is probably safe for now, although he does need to improve his form.

In other news, Tottenham screwed up not signing Jack Grealish when they had the chance

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Sports journalist who is an avid football fan, enjoys debunking transfer rumours, loves to write pieces about players out in the cold and takes a large amount of pride getting a predicted XI 100% correct.