By now, you might have heard that Mousa Dembele is not terribly happy with the fact that he seems to be fourth choice out of Tottenham Hotspur's four central midfielders. He is, at the very least, not preferred to Paulinho at the moment. The Paulinho-Dembele partnership that was employed while Sandro and Etienne Capoue battled injuries was not a good one, and apparently, Dembele has come out of that looking like the worse of the two.
Enter The Express, who are running with a story that Dembele wants out. They've listed a bunch of destinations for the 'wantaway' Spurs midfielder. Because he's totally crushed by not getting picked for a couple of games after picking up a minor injury. Crushed. Thinks the manager doesn't trust him. Wants to leave for the first top flight club that offers him first team football.
Premier League sides are eager to take advantage of the 26-year-old's situation, with the likes of Newcastle, Aston Villa, Southampton, Cardiff and Swansea interested parties.
They will have to fend off Serie A outfit Napoli, with former Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez also reportedly keen to lure Dembele away from north London.
This all comes from the following quote from Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblade.
"I can not be satisfied with it, of course, I just want to play as many games. The coach explained that he makes a tactical choice, he wants more defensive players in midfield."
He apparently said that ahead of the Newcastle game, which he started. He started the game before that one too. In fact, Dembele's started 13 games this year and been a substitute in five. He hasn't been an unused substitute at any point this season, which is more than we can say for Jermain Defoe, Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli, Gylfi Sigurdsson or Lewis Holtby.
Mousa Dembele is getting a lot of first team football. He's saying he wants to play as many games as possible, because he's a professional athlete. He was unhappy with a tactical decision that Andre Villas-Boas made in one game and has some concern that it could potentially lead to reduced chances to start, but it hasn't yet.
Basically, this is a non-story until Dembele gets benched for an extended period of time. Which probably won't happen.
Not a member? Join Cartilage Free Captain and start commenting | Follow @CartilageFree on Twitter | Like Cartilage Free Captain on Facebook | Subscribe to our RSS feed