Tottenham join chase for former Manchester City youngster

As Tottenham’s transfer season belated heats up, a new name is being churning through the rumor mill: Barcelona’s Denis Suárez.

The 23-year-old Spain international currently looks on the outs as the Spanish giants attempt to recruit Liverpool’s Coutinho and Borussia Dortmund’s Ousmane Dembélé.

So might Tottenham indirectly share in Barcelona’s windfall of superstar talent if indeed they can secure the capture of Suárez? Let’s dig into his history and what he might bring to Spurs.

Not too long ago, Suárez was the leading light of a newly reformed and upgraded Manchester City youth system. At one point, the club hoped that it would rival Barcelona’s own vaunted youth academy, La Masia.

Which makes it especially ironic that City so enthusiastically parted with Suárez in 2013 when they sold him to Barca for little more than £1 million.

Now, in fairness to City, Suárez’s maturity came at a bad time for the club. They had just won the Premier League title the season before with a team laden with expensively acquired talent. Much like their current situation with youngster Jadon Sancho, City simply could not promise Suárez the minutes he deserved.

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Neither, it turned out, could Barca. After a year spent in Barca’s reserves, Suárez was loaned out to Sevilla for a season before being sold to Villarreal in 2015.

He would be brought back to Barca last season as the club hoped to build some depth in their ranks. Luis Enrique would start him 12 times last season and use him off the bench in another 14 La Liga matches.

Suárez’s whirlwind tour of La Liga took him right back where he began, at one of the best clubs in the world. If we’re honest though, there’s little to think that he has that spark to fit in with a team that remains outrageously talented even after Neymar’s exit.

Tottenham, of course, can’t expect Barcelona-level talent, but it is worth asking if Suárez even meets Mauricio Pochettino’s more modest standards.

A willingness to drop more centrally from his preferred attacking midfield role is certainly a point in his favor. With Spurs already well-stocked with creative talent upfield, there remains a need for a deeper playmaker in the mold of Luka Modrić.

Suárez’s skillset is typically Spanish, and therefore leans more heavily on a keen passing game than anything as physical as what Mousa Dembélé currently brings to the pitch. In that sense Suárez would at least represent a different gear of play available to Pochettino’s attack.

Unfortunately Pochettino doesn’t have much to go on to gauge just how consistent Suárez can be. While he’s played at the senior level for three seasons now, that experience has come with just as many different teams. His ability to play in different squads and different tactics again speaks to his versatility, but it doesn’t necessarily tell Pochettino whether he would be a good fit for Spurs.

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All of this uncertainty, of course, balances on what exactly Spurs would have to pay for his services. Three years remain on Suárez’s contract, but with his future in the first team unclear Barca might be willing to part with him for a less than astronomical amount.