Shame on Dele...I called this about 3 years ago...poncing about...cba with him I’m glad the Spurs faithful are showing they are made of sterner stuff than the United fans who preferred their social media prodigy over a winner.
I definitely think he bought into his own hype whilst his whole designer brand stuff plus the on/ off **** with Ruby Mae just completely took his mind off of football. I don’t really see a way back into the team on a permanent basis for him any more as I just don’t think he’s good enough, I’ve felt like that for a while to be honest, certainly before Jose came in. On his day he really is a handful but “his day” decreases season after season. The only annoying thing from our viewpoint is that had we had the power of hindsight, we’d have sold him 2 or 3 years ago where we’d have likely gotten £100m for him. Be lucky to get £30m-£40m now, very lucky in fact.
30-40m is still a good ROI overall. The boy knows what he has to do, but time is not on his side, as Levy will not allow the kind of pandering the Wengers showed the likes of Wheelchair on/off pitch (Alli can ask Caulker / Townsend etc on what happens when a Spurs manager says "enough" ) .
One obvious point is that, if defences start doubling up on two out of Kane, Son and Bale there is absolutely a place in the team for Dele - namely popping up in the space created by players doubling up It's no coincidence he started to get less prolific once Dembele was unable to create space he could exploit
Defences have been doubling up on Kane and Son for years now, especially Kane, they’ve just adapted and evolved to persevere. With the amount we’re generally scoring at the moment Dele’s certainly not missed nor needed. I don’t actually think it’s a coincidence either that our attacking play is a lot better now without him, as for many matches I often felt he was holding the team back by offering next to nothing. The only ****ter for him is that there’s 3 or 4 who’ve been poorer than he has over a similar timespan that should be getting the exact same treatment he’s been getting.
For sure it’s still a very decent ROI but there’s an annoyance somewhat that could’ve been much, much better.
One of the most valuable attributes in football is the ability of a forward to produce an unexpected move. I am sure that most goals result from unexpected movements, it's one of the reasons you need pace in your attack. Cruyff was a world beater because he could move the ball at speed in completely unorthodox ways, Gazza with different technique could do the same. Dele has this ability, his movement and passing are often completely unexpected. He has not been at his best for a couple of seasons for whatever reason but yes the absence of Dembele greatly reduced the effectiveness of Spurs control of games and could easily be a reason for Dele's decline. He is not a ball winner he is a ball distributer so it follows that he needs a ball winner to work with. To get rid of such a talent now would be very shortsighted IMO. Spurs are not the finished article we have the players, we have the squad and the potential is exciting Dele could easily have an important part to play as the team progresses and the full options it produces become apparent. The end of the season would be the time to look at these options, too early right now.
Realistically Dele will no longer be a first XI player at this football club. His number ten position is more or less redundant now but when it isn’t it’s been occupied by Lo Celso or Ndombele or even Lamela. Then his secondary position is as a wide attacker, as of right now, he has zero chance of getting in the team in that position as we’ve never been as stacked in wide areas as we are now. He’d be about 6th choice behind Son, Bale, Bergwijn, Lucas, Lamela and possibly even Clarke. So far we’ve hit 31 goals this season, Dele’s contributed just the one - a 91st minute penalty against Maccabi Haifa when the game at that point was already 6-2 Spurs. I think we need to stop looking at the past and understand what’s needed for the present and future. Dele was great, he’s not any more, we have a bunch of better players than him at this football club now. He can barely make a matchday squad these days and when he does it’s in a “lower tier” one often from the bench. He, along with the CBs and backup CMs are what need replacing for us to progress. We’ve got a top keeper and good depth. We’ve got two FBs in each position, albeit the right side could do with tinkering. We’re **** at CB. So much so our best CB is a natural LB. We’ve got great CMs in Lo Celso, Ndombele and Hojbjerg but the depth is absolute turd in Winks, Sissoko and Gedson. In wide attacking roles we are stacked with great players and depth. Up front we have arguably the best striker on the planet at the moment and someone who looks like they could be a very good competitor for the position. Selling Dele makes a lot of sense if his funds can be put to use in much needed areas such as a top CB or genuine competition/ cover for Lo Celso and Ndombele.
Not finished. Just not good enough for Spurs. We need great players, not those who turn up once every 10-15 matches.
He was unbelievable for us, and clearly still has talent. But we don’t play a style that suits him and there isn’t space for him in a team built around Tanguy, GLC and our current crop of wide forwards and strikers. I think we’ll offload one of him or Lamela before too long. Dele is HG so we might prefer to keep him but he’s also going to have far more suitors and would fetch a bigger fee. Plus my money is on Lamela being more willing to stay and fight for his place. Dele needs first team football at a club that will build around him. He’s good enough to justify that at PL level but he’s not getting it at Spurs any time soon.
You know, if Marcus Rashford really wants to hold the Tories to account, it would help if he moved to a club in the London area considering large swathes of the north are currently "Out of sight, out of mind"...
I think Lamela will stay as he’s happy being a bit part player and many teams would probably turn their noses up at his injury record too, I think it’s quite obvious he has a Ledley-esque injury, can’t play two 90 mins in a week. Dele won’t be happy being a bit part. Problem for him is that he won’t be able to leave Spurs for a better club (unless it’s for a space on City’s bench as they like adding one or two HG players every now and then) and so it’s whether he’s willing to make the choice to drop to a team in roughly 10th-7th in order to get the game time he needs, unless he gets lucky with a move abroad, not sure if he’s someone who’ll do that or not though. He, along with Winks, Sissoko, Gedson, Rose and at least two of the three CBs ideally need to be sold/ terminated then replaced within the next couple of windows.
I`d have Dele in the squad or on the pitch ahead of Sissoko and Winks, he is an all round better footballer and could do a better job of their roles. In the brief moments we have seen Dele this season, he has looked good in my opinion, but he is never going to rediscover his form if he hardly ever gets on the pitch. I can`t help thinking something has gone on between Dele and Mourinho, because even a blind man can see Dele is more use on the pitch than Sissoko.
I disagree, I don’t think he offers the workrate and physicality of Sissoko and he’s a completely different player to Winks who wants to dictate play from deep. That’s never been Dele’s game, even when he was more of a box-to-box player at MK Dons.
Tottenham Hotspur have offered South Korea forward Son Heung-min a new five-year contract worth £200,000 a week plus performance-related bonuses, which nearly doubles the wages on his existing deal, which was due to expire in 2023. (Football Insider)
