Eriksen set for Tottenham stay as Real Madrid close to signing Bruno Fernandes

Recently, Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino said that Christian Eriksen’s future at Spurs would be decided before the North London Derby. That was backed up, it seemed, by his selection of Eriksen in the starting 11 against Arsenal.

Now, it seems that Real Madrid are about to put the final nail in Eriksen’s dream of moving to Madrid. According to Spanish ESPN reporter Manu Martin, Madrid is set to announce the signing of Sporting Lisbon attacking midfielder Bruno Fernandes tomorrow before the close of the transfer window.

There’s no rational reason why Zinedine Zidane would sanction a move for both Fernandes AND Eriksen, so that would pretty much be that. It also corroborates all the news coming out of Madrid in recent weeks that Zidane simply wasn’t interested in Eriksen, despite his come-and-get-me plea. (Fernandes also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for a Madrid side that already has Isco, but whatever.) This, plus the collapse of deal between PSG and Barcelona for Neymar, pretty much takes away almost every exit plan Eriksen might have had out of North London.

There’s been some background murmurs about Juventus maybe making a late bid, but Poch has already said that there’s not enough time to complete a deal after the NLD. It sure seems like Eriksen, who seemed happy on the pitch today and played a good game, is staying put for at least another season.

And if you want to be optimistic, there’s still a chance that he could sign another contract extension now that it’s been discovered that nobody but Spurs really wants him. Things haven’t looked great relationship-wise between Eriksen and Spurs for a while, but maybe it’s time for everyone to bury the hatchet and get him signed to a nice extension with a hefty release clause.

Rejoice?