According to the Daily Mail, Tottenham are interested in David Brooks and may have to battle Manchester United, Liverpool, Leicester City and Everton to procure his signature before the Football League transfer window shuts on Friday evening.
The 23-year-old winger will be granted a departure from Bournemouth but only if his lofty asking price is met. Brooks has two years remaining on his deal at Dean Court, so the Cherries aren’t in a rush to cash in. I can’t see why we’d would make a move this week as we’re overstocked in his position.
How good is Brooks?
He’s rated highly. The Welsh international joined Bournemouth on a four-year deal from Sheffield United in 2018 and has gone on to make 46 appearances in all competitions, scoring eight goals with five assists. Brooks has only made 13 appearances and amassed 772 minutes of football since the start of last season as he’s undergone surgery on his ankle.
In his debut campaign at Bournemouth (2018/19), he scored seven goals and made five assists in 30 Premier League games. As per WhoScored, Brooks created 30 chances, completed 73.1% of his 855 passes, whipped in 33 crosses with 24% finding a teammate, made 25 successful dribbles, had 41 shots with 48.7% hitting the target, blocked 41 passes/crosses/shots, made 23 clearances, won 46 free-kicks and averaged a tackle (37) or interception (24) every 37 minutes.
Brooks hasn’t featured too heavily since his breakthrough season at Bournemouth, but he still has a good reputation. It’s likely why the Cherries are requesting £40m for the £20k-per-week/£1.04m-a-year wide-man. That’s far too much money on a player who wouldn’t improve our squad.
Do we really need him?
I don’t think so. Brooks is talented, but we have better players in his position – Gareth Bale, Lucas Moura, Erik Lamela. That’s not to mention Heung-min Son and Steven Bergwijn either.
Why pay £40m for Brooks when we’ve brought in Bale? Until an existing player is offloaded, we have no real need to strengthen in that area, so I can’t see us making a move before 5pm on Friday.
That money would be better spent strengthening our defence.
In other news, the Danny Rose transfer saga has taken an embarrassing turn