Spurs’ Transfer Rumors: Tottenham Are Interested in a Peterborough United Player
The latest Spurs’ Transfer Rumors edition is here to read.
There’s a lot to discuss once again on today’s Spurs’ Transfer Rumors. First, Spurs are interested a in Peterborough United player. It’s unsure who it is, but according to HITC author, John Verrall, he believes it’s Jermaine Anderson. Next up, Borussia Monchengladbach’s Granit Xhaka has been picking up interest among several clubs with Spurs being one of them.
The third story involves Moussa Dembélé and how Fulham aren’t entertaining a sale of their French striker this January. And finally, Juventus are also going to hold onto one of their strikers, Simone Zaza. To see two more strikers stay with their current clubs for now means that Tottenham would miss out on three rumored targets, whether Spurs’ interest was serious or not. Time to get to these rumors down below.
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During an interview segment on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Peterborough United chairman, Darragh MacAnthony had discussed that Spurs were interested in one of his players. Although, the player in question wasn’t actually name-dropped.
So who could this footballer be?
According to HITC author, John Verrall, he believes the Peterborough United player that Tottenham are interested in is Jermaine Anderson based on MacAnthony’s interview.
“In fairness to Tottenham they do [have faith in the Football League],” MacAnthony said. “They bought Dele Alli and they also inquired about one of our players in November.”
“The reason they are doing that is because they have David Pleat working under Daniel Levy, who is a big fan of the Football League. He made the Dele Alli deal happen and he would have made another deal happen, possibly, with one of ours.”
“He knows the value that is in the Football League.”
So how could Jermaine Anderson, who wasn’t mentioned at all, be the actual target for Spurs?
The only explanation is that Mauricio Pochettino, Paul Mitchell and David Pleat are all eyeing the top Football League talent that could best fit into their team. And if current Posh manager, Graham Westley believes that Anderson is comparable to Dele Alli, then some scouting will surely be done.
Looking back to Jermaine Anderson’s month of November, it helps show a footballer who is on the upswing and when the 19-year-old won the Football League’s Young Player of the Month award in November for his five goals scored in four matches. It makes sense that Anderson could be a target for Spurs.
Jermaine Anderson so far has played a huge part for Peterborough United this season before suffering a season-ending knee injury after damaging his ligaments. The injury will see the midfielder have any potential transfer move blocked as he recovers and gets ready for next season.
Which means, Spurs can’t do anything right now but keep tabs on his progress ahead of the summer transfer window or next January to make their move.
Swiss international Granit Xhaka of Borussia Monchengladbach is a rumored target for Tottenham as well as Arsenal, Napoli and Valencia. A £5 million transfer fee back in 2012 when Xhaka joined Gladbach, will obviously rise much higher and with the three aforementioned clubs interested, a bidding war will commence eventually.
As for the 23-year-old central/defensive midfielder and what he brings to the German club, Granit Xhaka has been involved in numerous fouls this season after accumulating six yellow cards and two red cards in all competitions.
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That means he’s very physical and would already fit in with the Premier League’s style of football. But jokes aside. To be named club captain at just 23, shows how much talent and how mature Xhaka is in order to represent one of the top German clubs in the Bundesliga despite his current disciplinary record.
As far as Granit Xhaka’s playing style is concerned. According to his WhoScored profile page, Xhaka likes to do layoffs, play long balls, shoot from distance and of course foul a lot.
Strength-wise, the Swiss midfielder is great at passing, winning aerial duels and intercepting the ball but lacks discipline as his main weakness (which isn’t surprising when looking at the amount of yellow and red cards he picked up).
Still, there’s quite a lot to like, especially if Spurs get another young and talented early-20s player to the club. His position at both central and defensive midfield will be crowded but at the same time with Nabil Bentaleb falling out of favor with Mauricio Pochettino this term, despite being healthy since the last international break when he got re-injured. It’ll give Eric Dier a suitable backup in Granit Xhaka whenever Dier needs rest — which he does.
- Fulham won’t sell Moussa Dembélé
- [via Shoot]
Fulham manager, Slaviša Jokanović, has ruled out on selling French striker Moussa Dembélé during the ongoing winter transfer window. Of course, no quotes and no links were provided by Shoot, so let’s speculate instead because that’s fun to do.
Due to Dembélé’s current season of 25 appearances, 10 goals and two assists in all competitions — not to mention being only 19-years-old — the French international makes sense for clubs like Crystal Palace, Manchester United, Tottenham, Monaco and Roma (who have been labelled as potential suitors by the Shoot article above) to sign the player.
If £6 million is the price that’s being reported then that’s a steal. If it’s not, then it could at least double by the end of the season if Fulham are going to keep their star striker and the 19-year-old continues to impress while increasing his stats.
Just like the Mousa Dembélé article linked above, Simone Zaza is another player who will apparently be staying put according to Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri.
Despite only making 11 appearances and scoring 6 goals in all competitions (8 appearances and 3 goals in Serie A), the Italian manager says that Zaza is a great quality player and needs him this season. And considering that Juventus spent €18 million (£13 million), they have to get their money’s worth to justify spending that amount of money with little in return.
“First of all, Zaza has grown a lot and is doing well at Juventus. I don’t understand why he’d leave, and why there is this chatter,” said Allegri in a press conference, reported by Football Italia.
“He is a player with great quality, who has improved a lot and is important for us. It is right that he stays with us. As I always say, in a big team, you need a pool of top strikers, top midfielders and top defenders. So we can’t think about two top strikers and two who are on a lesser level.”
“The levels must be balanced and we have four strikers with great quality, who are good together and are fighting for places.”
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At just 24-years-old, assuming that Simone Zaza was on the market and Spurs were interested in buying the Italian striker, he would get around the same amount or more appearances at White Hart Lane. That being said, if Massimiliano Allegri says that Zaza has quality as a striker, it’s best to take his word since he’s watching him train everyday.
If Tottenham still need to shore up their attacking reinforcements, the summer transfer window is the best place to go and potentially, Zaza could be an option if the Lilywhites miss out on all of their striker options this season. Or if they don’t sign any at all.