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Tottenham Hotspur are said to be keen on bringing Hoffenheim’s Florian Grillitsch to London, with Sky Sports understanding Mauricio Pochettino has sent scouts to oversee his progress for club and country.
The 23-year-old midfielder has been in scintillating form in the Bundesliga, enough to see his TransferMarkt value constantly ascend until it hit £18million, which is also believed to be enough to trigger a release clause that would see the Austrian’s two-and-a-half year contract in Germany brought to an abrupt end.
The suggestion is that Grillitsch is one of a few candidates being considered to replace Mousa Dembele now the Belgian looks set to depart for China, but that is only one potential consequence of the move. Football FanCast are here to run you through the rest…
Which big 6 club needs to do the most business in January? Check out what the Pl>ymaker FC squad think in the video below…
A perfect midfield
There’s nowhere else to start than with Grillitsch being Dembele’s long sought after replacement. Tottenham are understood to have been looking for someone to fill the Belgian’s void for the past two years and in that time have been forced to watch on as Geoffrey Kondogbia and Matteo Guendouzi sign for other clubs, including arch-rivals Arsenal.
Injuries have eaten away at the 82-cap international’s Premier League career and without the 31-year-old, Pochettino has lacked a midfielder who oozes quality on the ball while possessing the power to win it back off the opposition.
The arrival of Grillitsch will give the Argentine manager this sort of player, but also signal Pochettino finally having a perfect midfield at Tottenham, with Eric Dier the rugged defensive unit and Christian Eriksen offering all the creativity a side could ever need.
Dele Alli the full-time winger
A Pochettino side is relatively easy to draw out on paper, but the picture would become even clearer with Grillitsch on the books.
Unfortunately for England’s Dele Alli, this would raise serious doubts over where he fits into the picture in North London, as his attacking threat is sublime but not quite at the level Eriksen offers.
The only possible answer, therefore, would be for the 22-year-old to become a full-time winger and rival Son Heung-Min, Erik Lamela and Lucas Moura for a starting role.
It would not be unheard of for Alli to move out onto the wing, with the 33-cap international regularly deployed on the left under Pochettino – altogether the MK Dons product has played 31 times on the wing in London, his second most used position.
Genuine title contenders in 2019/20
Leicester may have won an incredible Premier League title in 2016 while Chelsea usurped the Lilywhites to the crown the following year, but Spurs were actually the best side over the two seasons combined with a total tally of 138 points – 11 more than Manchester City mustered in the same period.
Even adding in last season, Tottenham remain the second best team in England over three subsequent campaigns with only City’s remarkable 100 title-clinching points enough to overturn the deficit.
Complete the perfect midfield, hope that Toby Alderweireld, Jan Vertonghen and Harry Kane stay fit and Tottenham should be able to mount genuine opposition to the Sky Blues and Liverpool next season.
