Who is Rumored Tottenham Target Nico Gaitán?

Rumors swirled Wednesday that Tottenham were inquiring into the availability of Atlético Madrid winger Nicolás Gaitán for a possible move before the January window closes.

The Evening Standard was the first to break the story that Tottenham might actually end up doing some winter business after all.

Mauricio Pochettino previously dismissed the notion that Tottenham would restock in the January transfer window. It was, he claimed, too difficult to improve the squad midway through the season. So what is it about Nico Gaitán that would provoke him into changing his mind?

If one thing is clear, it isn’t the Argentinian’s sterling run of form at Atlético. He’s made just six starts for the club since arriving in the summer — 14 appearances overall — while scoring three goals across all competitions. Seeing as how the Spanish club paid £22 million for the player, that’s not precisely a healthy return on investment.

All that said, the amount Atlético paid for him in the summer did feel justified. At 28-years-old, he was among the better players in the Portuguese league, plying his trade for Benfica.

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Primarily a deep-lying winger, Gaitán was a reliably sturdy contributor on the pitch — if not exactly a scorer of goals. Unlike the supposedly en vogue winger these days, say someone in the mold of Douglas Costa or Gareth Bale, Gaitán was a player whose quality didn’t always who up in the shallower metrics.

Instead, Gaitán is a team player not entirely unlike his countryman and current Tottenham man Érik Lamela. He will drop deep, help keep or regain possession, then function as a link the chain of movement back forward. It’s unglamorous but vital work.

Diego Simeone’s Atlético relies heavily on exactly that kind of effort, perhaps more than any other team in Europe. Their midfields are compact enough to sometimes appear as four central playmakers squeezed in a narrow bundle. Acquiring Gaitán only made sense given that tendency.

The same holds true for Tottenham. Gaitán fits into Pochettino’s ideal of a two-way midfielder, one who isn’t solely about attack any more than he’s solely about defense. Any such multi-faceted player would stand a decent chance of finding his way into the squad.

A problem — there’s always a problem — has already been mentioned in this article. Lamela plays in Gaitán’s preferred position on the right side of attack and performs almost the exact same function. Once the Argentinian returns from injury in the coming weeks, he will presumably go back to filling in the void Gaitán would be bought to fill.

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Perhaps, then, Gaitán would be backup to Lamela. Seeing as how the club already spent £30 million on an ostensible Lamela backup in the form of Moussa Sissoko this summer, it seems unlikely they would spend even half that to get a second such backup.

We can consequently count this among the more improbable rumors so far this January transfer window. Tottenham are about to welcome back the only man these need in attack, and it will feel enough like a new signing without spending millions more.