Tottenham grinding through rumor mill with Kyle Walker exit talk

The ongoing saga of Kyle Walker seems destined to thrust Tottenham into the center of the rumor mill, where they will be linked with all manner of improbable deals and potential replacements.

Though far from a sure thing at the moment, Walker’s dissatisfaction with playing time — and presumably pay — will engender no small amount of chatter in the months to come.

Tottenham successfully resisted the charms of the rumor mill over the last two seasons in favor of a more subtle — and boring — transfer policy that yielded luminaries like Victor Wanyama and Dele Alli, but more often left Spurs carrying dead weight.

Now that a future without Walker must be planned for, Spurs will find themselves linked with virtually ever available right-back in football.

While that journey will inevitably feature big names from La Liga and the Bundesliga, players who will be coveted by several other clubs as the full-back continues on its recent renaissance.

Today, though, the tittle-tattle involves Adam Smith. The Sun reports that Tottenham might be interested in recruiting the Bournemouth man as a way to soften the blow of losing Walker — perhaps to Manchester City.

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Those Spurs fans with a keen memory might recall that Smith was once a hot prospect in Tottenham’s Academy. Like so many other promising Spurs youngsters in the early ’00s though — think Tom Carroll and Andros Townsend — Smith endured the odyssey of the loan system, sailing from one Football League club to another before becoming enough of an unknown quantity that he was sold to Bournemouth in 2014 for a relative pittance.

Since then, Smith grew into Eddie Howe’s team, becoming a regular starter once the Cherries earned promotion to the Premier League in 2015/16. He is an automatic starter these days, having started 32 matches this season thus far.

In broad strokes, a player who thrives in Howe’s system at Bournemouth is a good fit for Tottenham. They would already be familiar with Mauricio Pochettino’s insistence on playing out of the back, on constant movement, on an organized defense.

More specifically, Smith is an attacking player in the same mold as both Walker and Kieran Trippier. He is aggressive going forward, having already scored once this season and set up five assists.

Sometimes though his adventurous attitude gets him in trouble defensively. It’s no coincidence that Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham found some joy down his flank when Bournemouth took on those sides in quick succession in April.

Both Walker and Trippier suffered through some of the same problems at Tottenham too of course. Perhaps Pochettino hopes that he can still teach the 26-year-old a few lessons.

A significant chunk of Smith’s appeal, though, is that he’s English. Pochettino continues to work wonders with his English players, and with the FA obliging teams to have a certain number of home grown players on their rosters it never hurts to add one more.

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In the end, it remains far from clear that Smith is of sufficient caliber to compete at Tottenham. At 26, he might be too old to considered a project for Pochettino, who tends to only prefer older players only if they are already exceptional, like Toby Alderweireld or Victor Wanyama.

Perhaps Smith comes on as a backup for Trippier, if indeed the latter is up for a permanent starting role. That would make the most sense, though it would represent a missed opportunity for Pochettino. There are other options available — younger players who could be molded into Spurs’ system for the long-term. We’ll explore those players in more depth over the coming days.