Tottenham Renews Interest in Ante Ćorić

The search for adequate cover for Tottenham’s Christian Eriksen might end with Ante Ćorić.

Tottenham were thought to be on the trail of Ćorić earlier in the summer before deals for Victor Wanyama and Vincent Janssen overtook the conversation. Now Mauricio Pochettino appears willing to return for the creative midfielder as the last piece of their summer transfer window puzzle.

Ćorić is a regular in Dinamo Zagreb’s starting XI and performed well enough there to earn two caps for Croatia thus far. He’s made 86 appearances for the reigning Croatian league champions in all competitions, scoring 12 goals and assisting 17 others along the way.

Tottenham are understandably not alone in their interest. Clubs in Germany and Italy have also scouted the play, and according to Sky Sports Tottenham might have to fend of domestic competition in the form of Everton, Liverpool and Manchester City.

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The renewal of Tottenham’s interest in Ćorić comes just days after the club successfully sold Academy product Alex Pritchard to Championship side Norwich for a reported £8 million.

In some ways it’s easy to see a direct line between Pritchard’s sale and a probable move for Ćorić. At this time last year, Pritchard was seen by many as the natural heir to Eriksen’s throne. He was young and lacked Premier League experience, but his success on loan with Brentford the previous season suggested he was ready for a bigger stage.

Unfortunately an ankle injury sustained with England’s under-21 side over the summer ultimately necessitated surgery, thus keeping him out of Pochettino’s plans. A loan move to West Brom in the latter half of last season was seen as a chance for him to reclaim some hype, but his inability to break into Tony Pulis’ first team sunk such ambitions.

Bad luck or no, the season was evidently enough to convince Pochettino that Pritchard was not to be relied upon to understudy and rotate with Eriksen. Even as Tottenham’s pursuit of Olympique de Marseille winger Georges-Kévin Nkoudou continued, there were rumors that the club were in the market for a fourth and final signing of the summer, this time in the form of a number 10 type.

It’s far from a surprise that their search would take them back to Ćorić. The player checks all sorts of boxes for Pochettino. At 19-years-old, he’s still very young and easy to mold into a new system. Despite his youth, his precocious talents were great enough to already earn him two seasons of top flight experience with Dinamo Zagreb — including time in the Champions League.

Watching film of him makes the parallels between him and Eriksen clear. Ćorić is comfortable with the ball at his feet, able to dribble through or past opposition into dangerous positions on the edge of the opposition’s area. Like Eriksen, he will often times drop deep into central midfield to open himself up to receive the ball, then turn and run or turn and distribute to more advanced players.

Croatian club football isn’t of a high enough caliber to suggest that Ćorić would automatically succeed at the Premier League level, but at the very least Pochettino can see a rough outline of a player who could soon fit into Tottenham’s wider picture.

Sky Sports’ story doesn’t include details about a possible fee for Ćorić, but given the reported interest from other clubs it wouldn’t be too surprising to see it inflated a bit beyond what might be expected for a 19-year-old.

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With Tottenham having already moved on from Pritchard and likely about to do the same with Nacer Chadli, the club might feel more justified in meeting Dinamo Zagreb’s demands. Given what we can see of Ćorić so far, it should be money well spent.