Tottenham Hotspur reportedly interested in Juventus defender

In what is likely to be one of many links with Tottenham back to new Football Director Fabio Paratici’s old team, Spurs are reportedly interested in Juventus’ Turkish defender.

Tottenham likely to be linked with Juventus a lot

Now that Paratici is working for the Lilywhites, there will be many rumors linking Spurs back to Italy and to Fabio’s prior employer. This latest rumor has Spurs targeting their big Turkish center-back Merih Demiral.

Demiral has some great academy training spending time with Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahce before moving into the Sporting system. Demiral joined Juventus in June of 2019 following a successful loan with Sassuolo in Serie A. A 21-year old with a lot of promise, it looked like Paratici had done it again. Unfortunately bad luck has been a big part of Demiral’s Juventus experience.

Demiral had paid his dues early in the season riding the pine but had finely broken into the Juve line-up. Starting six straight games in all competitions across December 2019 into January 2020, things looked great for the Turkish defender.

Injuries have defined Demiral’s career so far

Merih had just scored his first goal for Juve against Roma in the third minute of their January 2020 match. Unfortunately he ruptured a cruciate ligament in his knee less than 20 minutes later and missed most of the rest of the season.

This season, having recovered from his knee injury, started well, with Demiral going the full 90 in five of Juve’s first seven in Serie A. Then he got injured again. That recurring theme was the story of Merih’s season; he would get healthy, return to the team and then get hurt again.

Tottenham need more reliability

All this brings us back to Tottenham and the idea that Paratici is going to bring Demiral to north London. A well-trained, international defender who has started for Juve sounds like a great option on the surface. However, there are red flags in abundance as he has missed nearly 40 matches in the last two seasons at just 23 years old.

Ultimately the first ability every player must have is availability, and if Demiral cannot be available consistently Tottenham should pass. Tottenham is likely to be linked with many Juventus players over the coming months and years, but Spurs need to find the ones that will pay off both now and in the long run.