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High — if not at the top — of the list of players tipped to leave the club this summer is French winger Georges-Kevin Nkoudou. The 24-year old was signed three seasons ago from Marseille after a long and protracted transfer saga but landed with a thud, barely making any appearances for Spurs since his arrival and even less of an impact, apart from a lovely assist for a match-winning goal against Fulham in a four minute cameo appearance late this season.
He was shipped out on loan the past two seasons — first to Burnley in January 2018 where he made 8 appearances, impressing nobody. He was again loaned in January 2019 to Monaco, where he played in his first three games after his arrival as a substitute, then promptly picked up a hamstring injury and was never seen again.
So if you’re thinking to yourself “Monaco’s not going to want to sign this guy,” you’re absolutely right. France Football is reporting that Monaco will not try to sign GKN from Spurs and he will return to Tottenham this summer.
This is turning out to be a problem. He only cost Tottenham £9.4m but it seems they can’t even give him away, and will probably need to either take a significant loss on him or find him another loan. He still has two years left on the five year contract he signed when he joined the club in 2016.
It’s possible that Daniel Levy could slap a 50% Off sticker on him and ship him out to some lower-level French club or anyone that would have him, but considering Spurs haven’t found a buyer for him in the past two years it might not be that simple. Both GKN and Vincent Janssen appear to be like unwanted houseguests — players that just won’t go away.