Mauricio Pochettino Confirms Three Tottenham Players’ Exits
Nabil Bentaleb, Federico Fazio and Alex Pritchard’s futures are not with Tottenham based on Mauricio Pochettino’s plans for the future. All three are now expected to be loaned or sold before the transfer window closes.
The Daily Mail and London Evening Standard are both reporting that Mauricio Pochettino has decided to move on from three Tottenham players, two of which are on the fringe of making the first-team this upcoming season.
Nabil Bentaleb, Federico Fazio and Alex Pritchard have all been personally told by Pochettino that they have no future with the club. It’s a very big declaration considering that Bentaleb (21) and Pritchard (23) are still young enough to make it onto this team.
But it seems that both players have shown enough in Pochettino’s eyes despite a lack of playing time with the club last season.
Related Story: Report: Tottenham Could Loan Bentaleb to Benfica
As for Clinton N’Jie, with rampant speculation that he is set to join Olympique Marseille in a separate deal that will net Tottenham Georges-Kévin N’Koudou going the other way, there are conflicting reports about his future.
Mauricio Pochettino kept the Cameroon winger back in London because he picked up an injury at the start of Tottenham’s pre-season training. If that’s the case then a loan move back to France would be off the table — one would think — because N’Jie has to be fully fit first.
"“N’Jie is injured – he picked up a small injury a few days after the start of pre-season and he is in London and was not available to come,” Pochettino told reporters.“The situation of the other three players – Bentaleb, Fazio and Pritchard – is very clear. They are not in my plans and they know. I have communicated with them and it was made very clear.”“It’s not a problem. They know the situation and we’ll see what happens.”"
Because N’Jie wasn’t actually name-dropped by Pochettino in which players would make an exit this summer, it appears he has a future with Tottenham.
But Lyall Thomas of Sky Sports believes that the 22-year-old’s injury, which has been diagnosed as a calf injury and will keep him out of action for 10 days, shouldn’t interfere with a season-long loan to Marseille.
With Bentaleb, Fazio and Pritchard set for an exit, this isn’t the first time that Pochettino has decided to move on from a few players who didn’t pan out in his system.
It’s a tough pill to swallow that Nabil Bentaleb (who has his fair share of fans and detractors) and Alex Pritchard (who never got a fair chance with Spurs last season due to injury) will be gone, but the Argentine coach did this in his first year as well.
He sold fan favorites in Michael Dawson, the Club’s captain at the time and Lewis Holtby, a player who rarely got any chance to prove himself. Both of these players found it difficult to impress Mauricio Pochettino.
Ultimately, Tottenham’s squad must be one of the best not in just their starting XI but also on the bench too, because of the amount of football that Premier League clubs must contend in on a yearly basis.
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Right now, Spurs can challenge for a top four spot, with this current set-up.
While a third-place finish was aided by other top clubs slipping up in the process, Tottenham can only control their own actions and not others.
Going beyond a top-four finish, and winning trophies, that’s where Pochettino must decide who is on the chopping block and who won’t be able to help him reach his team’s goals in the future.
What will happen to the attacking midfield, defensive midfield and center-back positions once Nabil Bentaleb, Federico Fazio and Alex Pritchard are officially sold or loaned out with an option-to-buy?
Currently, Bentaleb’s spot was filled with the addition of Victor Wanyama.
Ideally it would be nice to have a third holding mid to give Wanyama some rest in the League Cup for example, but if Wanyama and Eric Dier are equally rotated every other match or two, then defensive midfield should be fine with two players.
If you add in Mousa Dembélé who technically acts like a holding mid in central midfield, then this gives Pochettino some options to work with.
Attacking midfield still needs another player to add some more creativity but because Dele Alli has been deployed here more often than his natural position of central midfield, plus there’s Son Heung-Min and occasionally Christian Eriksen, not to mention Josh Onomah, it’s quite stacked.
Of course, getting a player outside of the organization wouldn’t be bad either.
Center-back can also be addressed in the transfer market, but like attacking mid, Tottenham have a couple of youth players who can be that fourth central defender in Dominic Ball and Cameron Carter-Vickers.
Next: Pochettino Won't Leave Tottenham for Argentina
Spurs will still need to add some more pieces before the transfer window closes on September 1st, but a fallback option is promoting through their academy.
It’s not the ideal plan even with a lot of exciting prospects coming up the ranks, but if Tottenham wants to win some silverware, more youth players might not be enough.