It is the 3rd of November (as I write this) and of course with two months until the January window opens it is crazy theory time from the press. Some however does appear to be credible and so what I am going to lay out here is basically what I feel is happening at our club right now.
We need a player or two as reinforcements. Everyone can see that however due to the stadium not being complete our budget has gone. Much talk has been had about the stadium build being separate from our operating budget was and is correct except now we have over run on it money needs to be kept on hand in case anything else unforeseen was to happen.
So to be able to sign anyone we need to sell some players so that way that is fresh money in that we can then use. So, who can we sell from our current squad and we have some obvious candidates. Vincent Janssen, Georges Kevin-N’koudou and one which many could possibly raise an eye brow at is Mousa Dembele.
Since Poch arrived especially, Dembele has been one of our key figures and his dominant midfield displays something that all fans have enjoyed over the last few seasons however the big Belgian has real fitness issues meaning he cannot play as many games as he once did and also when he does he rarely hits that form we know and love for a full 90 minutes.
Add to that Dembele is out of contract this coming summer and has made it very clear he would like a final pay day in his career and to leave. China the most obvious destination for him with at least three clubs there willing to pay him the money he is looking for.
Daniel Levy however would like to get something for the midfielder and since the start of October it appears talks have been happening where he is being offered to the clubs in China in January. The player obviously wants a pay day and if he runs out his contract in the summer of 2019 a club will pay HIM a fee instead of paying a club (Spurs) a transfer fee.
So how can Daniel Levy get around this? This is actually not something he has had to deal with before as since the ‘judas incident’ we as a club generally do not let players get to a situation where they have two years or less on their current deals – if they are unwilling to sign new ones they are sold when we can get good money for them.
One way for Mr Levy to get a deal that works for club and player would be to agree a fee with the player that he will earn from the transfer but of course it will be down to the player and how he feels.
Now many might be reading this and thinking about another Belgian we have who is out of contract this summer and that is of course Toby Alderweireld. The difference is we have a clause in his contract that we can activate to extend his deal by a year, now this does trigger a release clause of just £25m but getting £25m for a near 31 year old out of contract if he wants to leave is better than nothing.
So January could be an interesting month for Spurs fans. We will be linked with players constantly as everyone knows we need someone but until you see people leave do not expect anyone to come in.
…… unless Joe Lewis decides to sell a yacht and invest in the club of course.
-Admin SJ
