Norwich City defender Ben Godfrey is on Tottenham Hotspur’s radar ahead of the January transfer window, according to Football Insider.
An exclusive from Football Insider’s Pete O’Rourke reports that Godfrey is valued at around £20m-£25m if Spurs want to get a deal done next month.
Spurs have previously been linked to Godfrey’s Canaries teammate Max Aarons, by the Daily Mail, as a solution to our right-back problems.
While our right-back situation has been so desperate that I’d be happy to take a chance on Aarons, I don’t think Godfrey is the right fit, right now.
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There will certainly be some activity in central defence over the next couple of windows with Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen out of contract in the summer. You’d expect at least one, if not both, to leave the club.
Davinson Sanchez is not ready to lead the defence in the absence of the Belgians so would need an established partner if they were both to go.
And any new-look defence for next season will not be built on solid foundations. We have only kept one clean sheet so far this campaign. Throwing two relative youngsters together should not be the answer.
Godfrey has started all 14 of Norwich’s Premier League games this season and has recently broken into the England Under-21 setup. But we already have Juan Foyth – an Argentina international let’s not forget – who should be the next cab off the rank if we are looking at a young centre-back, and also Japhet Tanganga behind him, leaving the need for Godfrey redundant.
He would help satisfy our need for more homegrown players, but the loss of Alderweireld and/or Vertonghen would leave a real hole in terms of proven defenders, so I would be more comfortable replacing them with somebody of more experience and stature. And I’m sure that Jose Mourinho would too.