Tottenham could make move for Riyad Mahrez
By Ryan Wrenn
It seems inevitable that Tottenham will become embroiled in the rumor mill surrounding Leicester City’s Riyad Mahrez following the players’ transfer request — but do Spurs really need him?
Before seeing where he might fit at Tottenham, it’s best to start with the player himself and how his reputation soared to its current heights in the last few seasons.
Raised in the vaunted youth academy of La Havre in France, the Algerian was sold for a pittance to Leicester in 2014 — only £500,000.
It was clear early on in Leicester’s first season back in the Premier League that the Mahrez purchase was a possibly tremendous coup.
The winger was phenomenal with the ball at his feet, able to dink and dodge the best the Premier League threw at him. With him on the pitch, Leicester could much more easily bridge the game between the middle and the final third.
Dribbling isn’t the entirety of Mahrez’s game though. He’s also among the finest providers of the perfectly weighted through-ball, a talent put to good use in the pass-and-move tactics of Leicester. It’s little wonder that he and someone pacey like Jamie Vardy meld so well together.
He’s also capable of a devastatingly accurate shot from range. A significant portion of the Premier League’s highlight reel from 2015/16 featured Mahrez navigating traffic only to score a goal from the middle of a crowd of defenders.
Though Vardy led the Foxes in goals in their title winning campaign, there’s little doubting who actually orchestrated their devastating attack. Put in a Tottenham context, for Leicester that year, Mahrez was Mousa Dembélé, Érik Lamela and Dele Alli — all at once. He would record 17 goals and 11 assists in the league that season.
One of the least talked about stories of last summer was that Leicester somehow conspired to keep hold of Mahrez despite understandably intense interest from several parties. Tottenham never lead that conversation, but there’s little denying that they would have benefited from a player who did what Mahrez did in 2015/16.
As it turned out, Spurs didn’t really need the help in the following season. Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Heung-min Son each score 20 or more goals, while Christian Eriksen provided the second most assists in the league. They were — and are — a well-stocked team that might be impossible to meaningfully improve in all but the most exceptional cases.
On his 2015/16 form, Mahrez might reasonably be expected to be among those exceptional cases. At the present moment, though, it’s harder to make that case.
Mahrez might never have improved on that wonderful title season, but he came far far short from even approaching that prior form in 2016/17. He and Leicester’s fortunes seemed in parallel for much of the season’s first half, with neither the player or the club able to recapture the magic of the previous season.
Even after Leicester began to show some improvement and pulled themselves up out of the relegation fight, Mahrez never truly found traction. Even though he would score four goals in nine matches of Leicester’s first ever Champions League campaign, he only managed six goals and four assists in 36 Premier League appearances.
Next: Tottenham can demand a mint for Kyle Walker
Perhaps there are clubs out there that might shrug off one bad season, but for the amount Leicester will demand for Mahrez it doesn’t make sense for Spurs to take that risk this summer. They don’t need the player, as we’ve said, and there’s no guarantee he is able to conjure that spark ever again.
Spurs might have money to spend this summer, but there are better options available than Mahrez.