Ange must regret selling Spurs’ £8m “leader”

It would be hard to describe this season as anything other than a failure for Tottenham Hotspur.

The North Londoners have had to deal with an astounding number of injuries to key players, but even then, their domestic form has been nothing short of shambolic, with a run to the League Cup semi-final their only saving grace in that respect.

Moreover, while the club backed Ange Postecoglou with three first-team additions in the winter transfer window, we can’t help but think he needed one or two more.

Alternatively, perhaps the club were too quick to sell a player in the summer who has since won comparisons to the incredible Jude Bellingham.

Spurs’ 2024 departures

Quite a few first-teamers finally left Spurs during the summer, so before getting to the player in question, it’s worth seeing how a couple of them got on, starting with Emerson Royal.

The Brazilian full-back joined the Lilywhites in August 2021 but was never quite able to justify his £25.8m price tag and, after consistently underwhelming, eventually became something of a scapegoat, with former Tottenham player turned pundit Jamie O’Hara going as far as calling him a “liability.”

He was finally sold to AC Milan for around £13m in August, and it would be fair to say that his start to life at the San Siro was somewhat rocky, with Italian football expert James Horncastle writing that his move looked ‘like the biggest donation in the history of Fondazione Milan as the club charitably tries to make his wish to become a footballer come true.’

However, he has since become a reasonably important part of the first team, and before his recent calf injury, he had made 26 appearances across all competitions, of which 22 had been starts.

Another defender who left the club in the summer was Joe Rodon, who moved to Leeds United on a permanent deal for around £10m after spending last season on loan with the club at the same time as Archie Gray went the other way.

Thus far, it looks like a move that has panned out perfectly for the Welshman.

Thus far, the centre-back has started 100% of league games for the Whites and played 100% of the minutes, which, when combined with his one start in the FA Cup and League Cup, means he’s made 35 appearances this season for a team that looks destined to win promotion at the second time of asking.

With that said, while both Rodon and Royal are doing well for their respective teams, we can’t imagine Ange regrets letting them leave, which might not be the case for a player who has won comparisons to Bellingham.

The former Spurs ace compared to Bellingham

As a modern midfielder, there probably isn’t a more complimentary modern-day comparison than that of Jude Bellingham, as the former Birmingham City gem has already established himself as one of the best in the world and played a pivotal role in Real Madrid’s La Liga and Champions League triumphs last season.

So, it might surprise some Spurs fans that their former player, Giovani Lo Celso, who was eventually sold back to Real Betis for just £8m in the summer, has recently been likened to the Englishman.

The comparison primarily stems from FBref, which compares players in similar positions in La Liga this season, then creates a list of the ten most comparable players for each one, and, in this instance, has concluded that the former Borussia Dortmund star is the ninth most similar attacking midfielder or winger to the Argentine dynamo.

The best way to see where this comparison has come from is to look at the underlying metrics in which the pair rank closely, including, but not limited to, non-penalty expected goals plus assists, shots, goal-creating actions, tackles plus interceptions, successful take-ons, carries and more, all per 90.

On top of their statistical similarities, the pair can also fulfil a few different roles in the middle of the park, such as attacking, central, or even, at times, defensive midfield.

However, away from the comparison to one of the game’s most exciting superstars, the former Spurs ace has also been having a great season from an output perspective, as even though he’s playing for a midtable side, he’s been able to rack up a haul of eight goals and one assist in just 20 appearances, totalling 1363 minutes.

That comes out to a brilliant average of a goal involvement every 2.22 games, or every 151.44 minutes.

Ultimately, Spurs had to clear out a number of players over the summer, so while it was probably the right choice in the long term, we imagine Postecoglou would love to have Lo Celso in his squad today.

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