Mauricio Pochettino might need to rebuild his current Tottenham Hotspur squad.

The club haven’t been the same since their Champions League final loss in May.

This term has seen them throw away countless leads and in their last two outings both Bayern Munich and Brighton & Hove Albion recorded significant victories over Spurs.

As an outsider looking in, it seems as though a few players are looking at their futures and believing they lie away from North London.

The important trio of Christian Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen are out of contract in the summer.

It’s been suggested in The Mirror that Spurs wish to sell creative star Eriksen in January as they don’t want to see him leave on a free at the end of the season.

While The Dane has been superb since signing for The Lilywhites in 2013 from Ajax. he has suffered from a bit of a slump in form this term. It’s believed that the player wants to leave his current employers and join La Liga giants Real Madrid.

The twenty-seven year old said as much in the summer:

“I feel that I am at a stage of my career where I would like to try something new. I have the deepest respect for everything that is happening at Tottenham and it would not be something negative to stay. But I have also said that I would like to try something new.”

“Real Madrid is a step up but then it would take Real Madrid picking up the phone and making contact with Tottenham and say that they want Christian. And that they haven’t done as far as I know.”

Via Bleacher Report

So let’s say Eriksen leaves within the next two transfer windows, who could replace him at the new Tottenham Stadium?

Well one target could be a player that’s already helped put Spurs to the sword this year. Leicester City’s James Maddison.

The twenty-two year old has been in scintillating form for The Foxes, having scored two and set-up two assists in seven Premier League games during this campaign. His form has also won him numerous call-ups into Gareth Southgate’s England squad.

Maddison gave a man of the match performance in Leicester’s 2-1 win over Spurs in September. The forward thinking midfielder grabbed the eighty-fifth minute winner with thumping strike!

During that victory, Maddison made thirty-five passes and two of those were key passes (Stats – Whoscored).

James is comfortable with the ball at his feet, he enjoys directly dribbling and scaring opponents. He also has a keen eye for a key pass. His through balls could reap rewards for Harry Kane and keep the striker in a comfortable number nine position.

On average the attacking midfielder is making around 3 shots per game and 1.6 key passes. Those are better than Eriksen this term but the Dane made around 2.1 key passes last season. Christian is also better with his passing success percentage and James would be expected to better his current 77.7% for his successful passes if he were to join Tottenham.

Maddison does tick a lot of the boxes that Spurs coach Pochettino likes in a player. He’s young, British, skilful and a hungry footballer. Mauricio likes getting his hands on young players and moulding them into top stars.

The stumbling block could be the potential transfer fee.

Maddison’s deal doesn’t expire until 2023 and that means that The Foxes won’t be in a rush to sell such an asset. As we saw in the last transfer window with Harry Maguire if Leicester City hold onto all the cards then they won’t sell below their asking price.

They got around £75m for Maguire from Manchester United and they might want something similar for their current England international.

Tottenham Hotspur supremo Daniel Levy is known to be a tough negotiator, will he really want to spend £60+ on James Maddison?

Only Levy can answer that one but I think Maddison should definitely be on the Spurs wish-list if they do indeed sell maestro Christian Eriksen.

Posted on October 12th, 2019 by scott
Filed under: Article