Erik Lamela’s time at Tottenham Hotspur could be up, with The Athletic reporting that there is a chance he could be sold in the January window.
The Argentine winger joined from Roma for £25.7m six and a half years ago [BBC Sport], but has spent nearly half of that time in the treatment room, playing 139 Premier League games out of a possible 248, with 85 starts.
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His latest injury was a muscle strain which caused him to miss two months of action, prior to his comeback off the bench in the 2-2 draw with Norwich City last Saturday. And this injury, coming on the back of another false dawn of form to start the campaign, might prove to be one too many.
Quite frankly, the 27-year-old has had more chances than his performances have warranted. A return of 32 goals and 44 assists in 201 appearances in all competitions is decent, but not worth the loyalty shown to him by the club, which was reaffirmed with a new contract signed in June 2018.
Much of that loyalty may be owed to Lamela’s relationship with compatriot Mauricio Pochettino. But football clubs cannot afford to have an asset unavailable nearly 50% of the time, and Jose Mourinho may be more ruthless in assessing his worth compared to that of a potential replacement.
The Athletic understand that Lamela may generate some interest from clubs in Italy, and we could choose to cash in if the right offer comes in.
I’ve always liked Lamela as a player, but there is no point investing more time on a guy with such a poor injury record. We should have moved him on before now, and must in January to ensure that Ryan Sessegnon and Giovani Lo Celso are getting the chances that Lamela might have wasted.
Also a fan of Lamela at his best… good on the tackle and forward pressure but not on the park enough. Older injury prone players do not get better/fitter. Now is the ideal time to sell while he still has admirers. Good call H.
Difference is bale has 100 odd goals for madrid and won four champions leagues in six years. World class.. Bale was injury prone back when he was with us too he is exactly the same.. The two thirds of games odd that he does play he tends to be on the winning side. With us and madrid. He does things like 40 yard overhead kicked goals in champions league finals with his first touch.. Shame the likes of eriksen (who never gets injured) cant do such amazing feats, or perhaps we’d have won something by now… Bale gets injured alot because of his style/pace.. We would be fools not to want him back, someone who really makes the difference in the big games.
Always seems to be one game away from another two months injury absence. New contract another brilliant piece of Spurs business, make sure to give Aurier a new ten year deal as a reward for all his efforts.
Your right… Let’s go get Bale for 15x more.
Put him ,and us , out of our misery. Get Rid of.
Love the photo of Cliff and Norm!
I always liked Lamela, bit of a one trick pony but he always gave 100% when he played.
And yet many people want to replace him with the also injury prone Bale …..
Unfortunately, we now need to find someone to buy him.