Why Tottenham Hotspur need to hang on to Harry Winks
By Aaron Coe
Tottenham Hotspur shouldn’t sell Harry Winks this summer.
Reports recently surfaced that Manchester City is interested in Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Harry Winks and Spurs may be inclined to sell. That is a bad idea.
Maybe Harry Winks – like Juan Mata at Manchester United – is not a perfect fit for coach Jose Mourinho’s more physical brand of football.
However, like United’s Spaniard, Winks certainly has a role to play under Mourinho and Tottenham Hotspur would be making a mistake to sell Winks to Manchester City.
Winks: Homegrown academy product
After selling Kyle Walker-Peters, outside of Harry Kane, Harry Winks is one of the few Tottenham Hotspur Academy products in the first team. Yes, it looks like Oliver Skipp and Japhet Tanganga will be coming through in the next few seasons to bolster the production, but not having talent they have developed on the pitch hurts the overall vibe of the Academy.
While a nice little profit off a sale – such as what was received for KWP or may be received for Cameron Carter-Vickers – is good for the books, but seeing youth turn into stars is good for the team, fans, and soul.
Beyond being an academy product, Harry Winks is also one of Tottenham’s A-list club-trained players, not just association trained, which is an important distinction in terms of European competition requirements.
Frankly the need to have four of the locally trained players be club-trained per UEFA. If Spurs cannot produce enough locally trained players, that limits the number of foreign players eligible for the 25-man squad. Losing a player like Winks, who can check two boxes from the squad requirements perspective, would be a tough loss.
Harry Winks the handy wrench
While I do not think playing on the outside of the midfield is something that Winks is really meant to do, in terms of positional flexibility as a central midfielder, that is something he has plenty of. Winks is a natural passer and really a born footballer. Not someone that is going to dominate like Giovani Lo Celso might, but Winks can put a fair shift in up and down the center of the park.
With Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg coming to the team, the opportunities to play as the single pivot are likely to be limited for Winks, but he has shown on more than one occasion – ask Real Madrid – that he can hold down the defensive midfield position by himself. If not in a solo holding role, we have seen Winks successfully partner with any number of other players providing a double pivot. When necessary, the passing of Winks next to the power of Hojbjerg will create some real fits for opposing offenses.
Beyond his willingness to do the dirty stuff defensively, Winks has a range of passing that we have yet to fully see at Spurs. While some think he does not fit the Mourinho approach, I do think he fits, as he can put the ball all over the park from almost anywhere in the center of the pitch.
Now with a defensive cleaner like Hojbjerg behind or beside him, we should see the range of passing from Winks, not witnessed since Mousa Dembele left in late 2018. Additionally, the steadiness of Winks’ game should allow other more creative players to shine, creating more attacks from a midfield short on creativity this past season.
Cannot help the competition
Maybe the best reason not to sell Winks to Manchester City is that he would come back to haunt Spurs for years to come. We have seen this movie before and it is not something we want to go through again. Yes, argue Winks is a better fit under Pep, maybe half the players in the world would be, the other half would be a better fit under Mourinho. Just because a player looks like he might fit one manager’s style more than another is not a reason to immediately jettison a player – particularly not a player with Winks’ ability and loyalty to the club.
The idea of just handing City a readymade replacement for David Silva – £40 million or not – does not sound like a good idea. How has that Kyle Walker thing worked out for everyone? Great for Walker and City as they have both gotten trophies, but not so great for Spurs who maybe are still looking for that next right back. The bottom line is you do not let your competition just take your talent – if your plan is to compete anyway.
What do you think, should Tottenham just let Winks walk if City rolls up with £40 million? Are there other reasons for him to stay or reasons for him to go?