PL rivals believe “sensational” £50m star is joining Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur may end up waving goodbye to another fan-favourite star before the summer transfer window slams shut at the start of September.

At the start of June, The Telegraph reported that club captain Heung-min Son could move on from London after leading the team to the Europa League trophy this season.

The outlet claimed that the South Korea international could be sold by Spurs in order to generate funds to bolster the squad ahead of their return to the Champions League, amid interest from teams in the Saudi Pro League.

Son has racked up an eye-catching haul of 173 goals and 101 assists in 454 appearances in all competitions for the club since signing from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2015.

The experienced forward’s departure this summer would mean that all three of Mauricio Pochettino’s iconic attacking line-up will have moved on, following Dele Alli and Harry Kane’s exits from the club in recent years.

All three stars were key players for the former Spurs head coach at the top end of the pitch, and Alli’s contributions should not be overlooked.

Why Dele Alli was a star for Spurs

The London-based club reportedly splashed out a fee of £5m to sign the attacking midfielder from League One outfit MK Dons in 2015, and Pochettino brought him into the first-team squad for the 2015/16 campaign.

Alli hit the ground running in the Premier League, bypassing the Championship, with a return of ten goals and eight assists in 33 top-flight games in his first season with Spurs.

The England international went on to plunder 67 goals and 59 assists in 269 appearances in all competitions for Tottenham before his move away from the club in 2022.

These statistics show that the former MK Dons talent provided plenty of quality as both a scorer and a creator of goals for Spurs during his time in London, whilst he also offered Pochettino a lot of flexibility in the way that he could be deployed within the starting line-up.

As you can see in the table above, Alli was deployed in several different positions for Tottenham, mainly playing as a central or attacking midfielder, or off the left flank.

The 29-year-old midfielder, who now plays for Como in Italy, was a star for Spurs due to both the quality he provided at the top end of the pitch and the versatility he offered the manager.

Spurs may now be about to unearth their next version of Alli, who was a key member of the attack that included Son and Kane under Pochettino, as they are expected to sign a Premier League star.

Spurs expected to sign Premier League midfielder

West Ham United outlet HammersNews reports that the Premier League side expect Aston Villa attacking midfielder Jacob Ramsey to sign for Tottenham this summer.

The Hammers are interested in a deal to sign the former England U21 international to bolster their own squad this summer, but the club believe that the 24-year-old talent is on his way to another team in London.

Speaking to HammersNews, the ‘top spokesman’ for the West Ham owners said: “I think the player (Ramsey) is going to Spurs.”

Spurs were recently linked with an interest in the Villans starlet, who could be on his way out of Villa Park this summer, and this latest update suggests that they are set to win the race for his signature.

Earlier this year, The Boot Room reported that Manchester City are also interested in the attacking midfielder, who is valued at a fee of around £50m by Aston Villa.

However, it remains to be seen exactly how much Spurs will end up paying for the English talent if they do end up signing him, as West Ham expect.

Why Spurs should sign Jacob Ramsey

The Lilywhites should push ahead with a deal to sign the 24-year-old star in the coming weeks because he could arrive at the club as Thomas Frank’s own version of Dele Alli.

Ramsey may not seem like an obvious signing for Spurs, given that he has only scored two Premier League goals since the start of the 2023/24 campaign, but his form in the past for Villa suggests that there is a quality player who could be unearthed.

The Villans maestro’s performances in the 2021/22 and 2022/23 campaigns suggest that he has the potential to develop into a top performer for Tottenham if Frank can get the best out of him.

Ramsey, who was once dubbed “sensational” by Seb Stafford-Bloor, plundered 12 goals and eight assists in those two seasons, and was particularly impressive in front of goal in the 2022/23 campaign, with six goals and seven assists to his name that term.

As you can see in the table above, the English star caught the eye as both a scorer and a creator of goals for the Villans, ranking highly among midfielders in the Premier League in several key attacking metrics.

Like Alli, Ramsey’s top three most played positions are central midfield, attacking midfield, and left midfield, which means that he can offer Frank the same positional flexibility that the former Spurs star did for Pochettino, as a playmaker who can play centrally or come in off the left.

His form in the 2022/23 season also suggests that he has the potential to provide an impressive threat as both a scorer and a creator of goals from those three positions, which is exactly what Alli did throughout his time in North London.

Therefore, Frank could unearth his own version of the former England international by securing a deal for Ramsey, before helping him to get back to the kind of form he displayed at the start of his Villa career.

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