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Have Tottenham Finally Found their new Dembele and Wanyama?

By Aaron Coe

BRIGHTON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 31: Pascal Gross of Brighton & Hove Albion is challenged by (L - R) Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Tanguy Ndombele of Tottenham Hotspur during the Premier League match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur at American Express Community Stadium on January 31, 2021 in Brighton, England. (Photo by Glyn Kirk - Pool/Getty Images)
BRIGHTON, ENGLAND - JANUARY 31: Pascal Gross of Brighton & Hove Albion is challenged by (L - R) Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Tanguy Ndombele of Tottenham Hotspur during the Premier League match between Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham Hotspur at American Express Community Stadium on January 31, 2021 in Brighton, England. (Photo by Glyn Kirk - Pool/Getty Images) /
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Tottenham Hotspur have not been the same since Mousa Dembele was sold to Guangzhou R&F back in January 2019. At that time Tottenham were 16-0-6 in the Premier League, in third place on 48 points and seemingly in a three-way battle with Liverpool and Manchester City for the title. At that point Spurs were earning an outstanding 2.18 points per match.

Tottenham Can’t Keep Up

While that pace and the 83 points it would have brought was still well short of Manchester City’s 98 points, Tottenham have instead gone in the opposite direction averaging just 1.55 points per match in the Premier League since Mousa Dembele was sold to Guangzhou. There have been a number of mitigating factors, like injuries to Son and Kane, or the selling of other players like Christian Eriksen and Victor Wanyama both the following January. Regardless, Spurs dipped after Dembele moved on and Tottenham are just now starting to come back up.

The Moose has been missed big time by Tottenham.

All this is to say something all Spurs fans really already know, the club REALLY underestimated the value of Mousa Dembele and what he was bringing in his role. Of course injuries played a part in the situation but so to did age and money. Injuries were much more the reason his one time partner was moved on than he was.

Victor Wanyama at one point was a mainstay in the Pochettino midfield, even changing clubs to fill the role for the Argentine.However, injuries began to limit Wanyama’s ability to get on the pitch and his style of play led to yet more injuries. As Wanyama’s availability waned so to did his role in the team.

In the year between Dembele’s sale to China and his own eventual transfer to Montreal Wanyama only played 20 times in all competitions for Tottenham. It was an unfortunate end to what was considered by some as the best holding midfield duo in the Premier League when they were together.