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Transfer rumors don’t sleep and neither do I. On the heels of reports confirming that Tottenham Hotspur are close to a deal with Everton for Richarlison comes another one courtesy of Fabrizio Romano: Spurs are also close to an agreement with Barcelona for a one-year loan for French left-sided central defender Clement Lenglet.
Barcelona and Tottenham are working on final details of Clément Lenglet loan deal, including salary situation. The player is waiting for negotiations to be completed very soon. ⚪️ #THFC
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) June 29, 2022
Tottenham are working on both Lenglet and Richarlison deals.
This is funny, in part because there were reports on Twitter from prominent journalists that suggested that Clement was “ghosting” Tottenham’s approaches to talk to him about a loan deal while he was on vacation. Guess that’s not the case!
I don’t have any new Lenglet takes from the piece I wrote on him yesterday. He’s no Bastoni, and is coming off what some are describing as a somewhat mediocre season at Barca that saw him play only around 800 minutes. His FBref stats are certainly a bit underwhelming, but it’s worth noting that FBref defense statistics sometimes say as much about how a football team is structured and set up to play as it does about the individual players tallying the stats.
I tend to think this loan, should it happen, is Spurs kicking the LCB can down the road a bit as they’ve determined that their top targets aren’t available or feasible to acquire. I also think that Lenglet could be cromulent in a Conte back three, in the same way that Eric Dier and Ben Davies, both pilloried by fans under Jose Mourinho, have taken to The Patterns and vastly improved this past season. I’m also not at all convinced that loaning Clement means we won’t see Spurs sign another right footed central defender like Serie A Defender of the Season Gleison Bremer.
In short: this is temporary depth, and I think it’s probably fine. Some fans will likely be irritated that we’re not signing flashy exciting players to make a splash and signal a title push next season (and they have a point!), but I’m pretty sure Clement can do a job as at minimum rotation for Davies next season.
And hey, maybe a knock-on effect is that Barcelona might be able to afford to GAZUMP Chelsea AND Arsenal for Raphinha. That’d be pretty funny.
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