Mason and Bentaleb Near Tottenham Exit

Tottenham appear set to move on from two former members of the starting XI.

If a pair of stories that surfaced in the past day are to be believed, neither Nabil Bentaleb nor Ryan Mason will be at Tottenham past the end of August.

Schalke will make an improved bid for Bentaleb according to French football journal Foot Mercato. With their initial £10 million offer declined, they would be edging closer to Tottenham’s £15 million valuation of the 21-year-old midfielder.

Meanwhile, recently promoted Premier League outfit Hull City are lining up their own bid for Ryan Mason according to SkySports. No word on how much it will take to pry the 25-year-old away from Tottenham.

Such stories might have come as more of a surprise last summer. Though Mauricio Pochettino and Daniel Levy cleaned out of much of the club’s dead weight, Bentaleb and Mason’s places seemed secure. They had paired up more often than any other players in the center of Tottenham’s midfield the season prior, and the club didn’t appear to be moving for upgrades.

While both seemed slated to have roles in the 2015/16 season, Eric Dier and Dele Alli — not to mention Mousa Dembélé — combined with injury to sink them down Tottenham’s depth chart.

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Tottenham earned a third place finish and Champions League football despite the absence of their former starting duo. Consequently, neither player hoped to be first team regulars this season. The arrival of Victor Wanyama and rumors about another central midfielder coming in only solidified that impression.

Still, there’s something remarkable about the ease at which Pochettino dispatches Tottenham veterans. Last summer’s purge of Paulinho, Younès Kaboul and several others seemed harsh but necessary to rebuild and improve the squad.

The relative lack of outgoing business so far this summer made it appear as if those old days were over. Tottenham needed as much depth as possible to compete in both England and Europe, and even if Bentaleb and Mason weren’t starters they were fine cover.

Now that both players appear set to move elsewhere fresh questions arise over how prepared Tottenham will be in another hectic season. Are such moves too hasty? Are Tottenham’s financial needs outweighing their footballing needs? Where do the club’s loyalties lie, if anywhere?

Balancing the books has been a priority of Levy and the club as a whole for the past several windows. It’s unfair and premature to say that any potential sales of Bentaleb and Mason are detrimental to performance on the pitch or even the players themselves though.

Pochettino’s working with an almost completely full stable of players even without Bentaleb and Mason. Part of that is down to the ascent of Dier and Dembélé as well as the arrival of Wanyama. Another but no less significant part is the wealth of talent available from the club’s youth academy.

Both Bentaleb and Mason were products of that same academy. Mason himself had been part of Tottenham’s set up since his was eight years old. In Pochettino’s eyes, though, they came from a prior age in the club’s philosophy. They were fine by the standards of Harry Redknapp and Tim Sherwood, but could they serve in Pochettino’s system?

By the evidence of the 2014/15 season — and the indirect evidence of the improvement in the 2015/16 season — the answer appeared to be “no.” There are other players that Pochettino clearly has a good amount of more faith in. Josh Onomah’s rise from the under-21 side to the first team bench is no accident. Nor is the expanded role of Harry Winks’ in this summer’s pre-season.

On the evidence of these recent Bentaleb and Mason rumors, it appears as if both those players will be given bigger roles in the coming season. Perhaps they aren’t quite ready for tougher matches in the Premier League and Champions League, but both could be eased into the side in domestic cup games and easier fixtures during more crowded runs in the calendar.

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In any case, Tottenham moving on from Bentaleb and Mason is no great tragedy. The pair will get plenty more opportunities elsewhere, and Pochettino can continue the build the team he wants to build.