Tottenham linked... kind of... with free agent Ryan Fraser

We’re going to talk about another Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumor today, because despite nobody knowing anything about what the financial market in the Premier League is going to look like, we know that SOME players are going to be moving clubs, whether or not there’s a transfer fee involved. Transfer rumors rest for no man or woman. Plus they’re fun, so why not?

It’s already been rumored that Spurs won’t have much of a transfer budget — if any! — this summer that isn’t raised through player sales, so it’s been hinted that the majority of the traffic will be outgoing, and incomings will be either via free transfers or swap deals. That’s certainly fueled rumors about players who are expected to leave their clubs on Bosmans. The latest name to emerge in connection to Spurs is Bournemoth winger Ryan Fraser.

The Fraser-to-Spurs links exploded at the end of last week after former Tottenham striker Darren Bent glowingly talked about what a good signing he’d be if he came to the blue half of north London.

“You’ve got Heung-min Son on the left, Harry Kane through the middle and maybe Fraser on the right, battling with Lucas Moura. It would be a great signing and if you can get him on a free as well, wow, what a signing that would be.

“If I’m Spurs I’m going all out to get that type of player but don’t make that your be-all and end-all.”

Fraser, 26, had his breakthrough season in 2018-19. That season saw him tally an amazing 14 assists, second in the league behind Eden Hazard’s 15, while also scoring 7 goals from a wide position. That was far and away his best ever career production — this season has seen his stats take a significant step backwards with one goal and four assists in 2000 minutes. It does make you wonder if that season was something of an outlier, and advanced statistics from 2018-19 (see sidebar) seemed to indicate that something was a little weird with that level of production.

Let’s be clear — this rumor isn’t so much a RUMOR as it is a former Tottenham player and pundit thinking it’d be a pretty good idea. Fraser is “linked” now with any decent to big sized Premier League club that isn’t expected to have a lot along the lines of transfer budget, which is to say Spurs and Arsenal, but as far as rumors go it’s pretty weak sauce.

But Darren Bent possibly isn’t wrong! It’s not exactly clear that Fraser would be an upgrade over Lucas Moura on the right side of midfield, but Fraser is clearly a decent player and would make a pretty good squad player with Premier League experience. He also comes with the added bonus of being free. In this economy, that’s a pretty strong point in his favor. You’d have to think that Spurs are looking at any halfway decent available free agent player right now and considering their options.

Knowing what we know (and what we don’t know) at this point, I wouldn’t necessarily turn my nose up at an incoming squad that includes the likes of Ryan Fraser and Thomas Meunier, both for the grand total of £0. But times are weird and my expectations couldn’t be lower as far as Spurs’ transfer window business is concerned.