Maxime Lopez is increasingly catching my attention as a potential Tottenham transfer target.
The Daily Star reported last week that Spurs were monitoring the Marseille midfielder who could be available for as little as £10m as he enters the final year of his contract in France.
As well as being cheap, the Frenchman is only 22 but already has 146 senior club appearances under his belt, so he wouldn’t be really green like some of our previous Ligue 1 imports.
And another tick in Lopez’s box is a glowing recommendation from one of his country’s greatest ever players, with Zinedine Zidane describing the youngster as an “outstanding natural talent”.
“I’ve known him for a very long time. Especially my kids, who know him very well – they played together in Aix-en-Provence,” Zinedine told Goal. “He always had this outstanding natural talent at his age and for his stature.
“It’s amazing what he’s doing, not just at his age because today age means nothing, but mostly because of the personality he has in the game. In other words, he’s someone who runs a lot, but is someone who plays a lot and makes others play as well.”
My concern about Lopez is his lack of goal contributions from midfield. He isn’t a defensive-minded midfielder and yet has only managed five goals and 21 assists in 146 matches for Marseille.
Mind you, that is a lot better than two goals and two assists in 135 games for Harry Winks who is our most comparable player.
Lopez would seemingly be an upgrade on Winks, but is that a priority?
agreed have we bought a french league player who has done anything for the club in recent years, except Loris? I can’t think of one
Cheap and French, I vote no.