We spoke on an earlier about “the churn” and what Sir Alex Ferguson had told former Tottenham ace Dimitar Berbatov, about the need to freshen up football squads every four years or so, to keep everyone on their toes.
A source close to Tottenham tells the Harry Hotspur blog that Mauricio Pochettino has been versatile monitoring wing-back Ricardo Pereira for some time, in fact since the now 26-year-old had been at Porto, prior to joining Leicester City.
Comparisons for this season would lack value, as the sample group of games would be so sparse. However, the case for Kieran Trippier being a lousy wing-back makes little arguing to anyone that watched him play last season.
Pereira’s 6 assists for the 2018/19 season, versus Trippier’s 3 proves a chilling point. Ricardo wasn’t routinely played as a wing-back by the Foxes, whereas, that was the constant role for Kieran.
Indeed, if we look farther afield, it becomes apparent what an asset the Portuguese is.
It is also telling that Trippier isn’t the only player to drift out of Spurs first team squad without a suitable replacement to be found, and what bites is that Kyle Walker’s departure precipitated this entire mess.
Trippier didn’t work, and we’ve since had Kyle Walker-Peters given a go, and the ill-fated Serge Aurier experiment.
Since Mousa Dembele began to slide physically, and then eventually sold, the Spurs’ midfield has been a disaster.
Succession management at Tottenham doesn’t exist.
The problem for Pochettino is that he may well be a keen admirer of Pereira, but would the boy himself leaving Leicester City and joining us as a step up?
Maybe he just needs a tour of the Shopping Centre, then his head will be turned, eh?