Spurs Target Profile: Axel Witsel

Spurs are on the hunt for ways to improve their squad ahead of a likely appearance in the Champions League next season.

We’ve got the scouting reports for all the players linked with the club, and we’ll be running through them over the concluding weeks of the season.

Today we drop deeper into midfield with a player who isn’t Eric Dier and likely never will be, but its still pretty good: Axel Witsel.

Position – Defensive midfield

Nationality – Belgian

Age – 27

Current Club – Zenit St Petersburg

Potential Transfer Fee – £20 million

Why Spurs Would Want Him –

For the same reason that virtually everyone else on the continent wants him: he’s darn talented.

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Having only played in Belgium, Portugal and Russia, the Belgian midfield destroyer might not have yet been tested in any of the top leagues in Europe just yet. Even still, his quality is virtually beyond questioning. It’s no exaggeration to say that Standard Liège, Benfica and Zenit St. Petersburg have each built their midfields around the player.

Like Spurs’ Mousa Dembélé and Eric Dier, Witsel is talented at virtually every angle of midfield. His tackling veers toward the sublime (see below), his passing is calm and deliberate and he even finds a way to press forward when his team has possession.

Witness Witsel – specifically his impressive defense – on display for for André Villas-Boas’ Zenit last season:

That’s just the kind of dogged, endlessly relentless midfielder that Premier League typically fawn over. That they haven’t made a move for Witsel sooner is less a testament to any lack of interest and more an indication of just how reluctant his clubs have been to part with him. Zenit only acquired Witsel after handing over the equivalent of £32 million to Benfica in 2012, and they purportedly pay him a salary well in excess of the typical Russian Premier League player. English clubs know that it would take even more for Zenit to agree to part with the player just as he is reaching the peak of his abilities.

Spurs and other clubs’ interest is piquing now mostly because Witsel’s contract with the reigning Russian champions is due to expire by the end of next season. Zenit could attempt to offer the player another contract, of course, but the allure of English Premier League ball might be too much for the 27-year-old.

Likelihood?

Not probable.

On paper, having a player on the same plain as Dembélé and Dier would appear to be an absolute boon. Who doesn’t like a wealth of options, right? Only Mauricio Pochettino’s Spurs team is not about indulgence, and likely still wouldn’t be if the Champions League comes calling next season. Though they’ve been linked with a relatively modest £20 million move for the player in recent days, it seems like a stretch all the same.

Next: Tottenham Have No Margin for Error with Six Games Left

See, Dembélé and Dier aren’t the only talented midfielders Spurs can call upon. Tom Carroll and Harry Winks and perhaps even Nabil Bentaleb could all compete for a understudy role in this summer’s training camps. Adding Witsel into that mix might be a sign of Spurs’ increased clout in the international transfer market, but it would also invite a level of confusion and uncertainly that could ultimately hurt Pochettino’s precious squad balance.