Tottenham Hotspur Links: Five Underrated Tottenham Players this Season
Another busy day of news on today’s Tottenham Hotspur Links.
The weekend is here and the first week of this current international break is coming to an end with one more week left before club football returns. Today, there’s plenty of news to get two with two lists and two interesting transfer rumors. Player lists are a great way to start discussions and having one list looking over Tottenham’s underrated players this season is how today’s Tottenham Hotspur Links will start.
- Five underrated Tottenham players this season
- [via The Transfer Tavern]
Here are the five players The Transfer Tavern listed as underrated this season.
Michel Vorm
Dele Alli
Ryan Mason
Nacer Chadli
Son Heung-min
Looking at this list, the two players who can honestly be considered underrated in Mauricio Pochettino’s squad, are Nacer Chadli and Ryan Mason.
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Chadli had a productive season last term and hasn’t gotten many games this year due to injury, the same thing with Ryan Mason — getting injured and Dele Alli becoming the starting central midfielder. When Chadli and Mason have played this season, they’ve shown improvement in their game and could improve even more with a competitive environment on the training grounds now that everyone is pushing each other for playing time because they feel like they deserve to be a starter.
- Tottenham are interested in 17-year-old center-back
- [via Daily Star]
The article focuses on Jan Vertonghen because Inter Milan were interested in signing the 28-year-old Belgian center-back, but Spurs aren’t going to sell Vertonghen so it’s a non-issue. However, the more interesting news is at the bottom of the Daily Star’s article. Here’s the quote from the author below:
“Meanwhile, Spurs could make a January bid for 17-year-old Dinamo Zagreb defender Vinko Soldo. Tottenham have been scouting the youngster for months but decided against making a move in the summer. Soldo is out of contract at the end of the season but AC Milan are ready to make a January bid, which could prompt Spurs into action.”
Signing a 17-year-old center-back is interesting because there are already two that Tottenham will be promoting soon within a couple of seasons — Miloš Veljković and Cameron Carter-Vickers. Now unless Vinko Soldo is going to be signed to replenish two potential youth academy graduates then that makes more sense.
The Algerian striker who is 27-years-old, will only be looked at as a backup. Islam Slimani, if signed, can start once the FA Cup begins but that has yet to happen.
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Playing for Sporting Lisbon, the 6’1″ center-forward would score 15 goals in 33 games last season after returning from the 2014 World Cup, which is a good way to get your name out there for the entire world to see.
This season, his goal scoring form has gotten better, where he has netted seven goals in 10 Primeira Liga (Portuguese League) games and scoring eight goals in 16 games overall.
If Tottenham believes that Islam Slimani, or Laurent Depoitre for that matter, could potentially help the team at the striker position then why not sign them in January? The only downside is that they might not get many games to play in, for one, because of Harry Kane’s current form. And secondly, they might not settle into the Premier League after making the switch from their respective leagues.
The list includes Kieran Trippier, Ben Davies and Ryan Mason which is interesting to say the least. Out of all three players, Kieran Trippier is the only one who definitely won’t get as much playing time in Tottenham’s first team after Kyle Walker has solidified himself as Tottenham’s best starting right back this season.
As for Ben Davies, he has regularly switched with Danny Rose at left-back this season based on certain matchups. When it comes to Ryan Mason, since returning from injury, he’s been getting a good amount of playing time by rotating with Dele Alli. So to say that Mason and Davies won’t get much playing time is a stretch. Oddly enough two names have been omitted who won’t get as much minutes in the Premier League.
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Those two players right now are Nabil Bentaleb and Kevin Wimmer. While Bentaleb is not fit to play for Spurs — yet — but for Algeria, technically speaking. The 20-year-old defensive midfielder won’t see much rotation with Eric Dier during games like Ryan Mason is afforded with Dele Alli. As for Kevin Wimmer, despite being the first new signing this past summer, he’s only the third choice center-back with Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld forming a great partnership. During the FA Cup, a rotated squad will most likely see Wimmer and Bentaleb starting once again.