Tottenham Hotspur are considering a move for former Premier League flop Florian Thauvin this summer, according to reports…
What’s the word?
Reports in Spain claim Spurs are ‘closely monitoring the 28-year-old’s situation at Marseille as he will be out of contract this summer.
It’s also suggested that ex-OM president Jacques Henri Eyraud offered Thauvin an ultimatum during January to either agree to fresh terms or leave the club.
Serie A clubs Napoli, AC Milan and Roma are all keen on securing his signature too, whilst Premier League rivals Leicester City have reportedly offered him a four-year £58k-per-week contract.
Would Thauvin be a good signing for Spurs?
Yes, 100%
Not a chance!
Absolute bargain
It would be easy to cast doubt over this move considering Thauvin’s past experience in England. At Newcastle United, the Frenchman scored just once in 16 appearances following a £12m move.
He soon returned to Marseille and has thrived ever since. Despite the Ligue 1 outfit never truly challenging for the title, he has consistently delivered in terms of goal contributions – between 2016/17 and 2018/19, Thauvin found the net at least 15 times across all three campaigns, with a high of 22 and similarly, delivered at least eight assists, as per WhoScored.
Injury hampered him last season but this term, he has rediscovered that impressive form with eight goals and seven assists in just 26 league starts.
Thauvin has been industrious on that right flank, chipping in with 1.1 tackles per game, proving he’s a hard-worker, and that’ll suit Jose Mourinho down to a tee. He is also averaging 1.6 dribbles and 1.5 key passes per match too, via WhoScored, thus showing a clear ability to get down the wing, beat his man and deliver a bit of creativity.
By comparison, it is only Harry Kane and Heung-min Son who can answer to his phenomenal record in recent seasons, whilst only one Spurs player is ahead of him for dribbles (Tanguy Ndombele) and key passes (Son).
That means all of Mourinho’s current right-sided options – Gareth Bale, Lucas Moura, Erik Lamela and Steven Bergwijn – are underperforming as opposed to Thauvin.
Several of these players are facing a dubious future in north London too. Bale could return to Real Madrid in the summer as he’s only on loan, so perhaps Thauvin is an ideal successor.
Similarly, Lamela and Moura could be sold given the interest in their services.
Toulouse coach Alain Casanova once called him “a player in the image of Franck Ribéry … someone who is able to disrupt any opponent, someone very dangerous when he picks up speed. Very dangerous indeed,” as per the Guardian.
To land a player of this calibre on a free transfer would certainly be another transfer masterclass from Daniel Levy, following on from the signing of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg last summer.
Those £58k-per-week wages would rank him amongst Spurs’ lowest earners too – even exiled Danny Rose (£60k-per-week), Ben Davies (£60k-per-week) and Davinson Sanchez (£65k-per-week) would be on more, according to Spotrac.
No transfer fee paid and cheap wages for a player valued at £28.8m, that would quite simply be an absolute bargain for Spurs.
AND in other news, £36m-rated beast could become Mourinho’s next Marouane Fellaini at Spurs…