With little interest for him, Eric Dier likely to stay at Tottenham

Eric Dier’s days as a match-playing Tottenham Hotspur player may be numbered, but he might not actually leave the club until next summer. According to Charlie Eccleshire, there’s been virtually no interest in Dier, an England international defender/midfielder, in the transfer market, and he is unlikely to leave the club before the close of the transfer window at 11 p.m. UK time.

There have also been reports that Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou has warned players on the fringe of the first team that there’s a chance they may not be registered for the Premier League if they don’t accept moves to other clubs. Dier, however, would still be considered fifth choice CB so according to Charlie Eccleshire would likely still receive a kit number for Premier League play as the break-glass-in-case-of-injury-crisis defender.

Dier only has one year remaining on his deal, so if he doesn’t get a move that he likes, it sounds like he might be happy just to train for a year before leaving on a Bosman. There’s reportedly interest in him abroad; they just don’t want to PAY Spurs for him.

I’m sad about this because I like Dier a lot as a human being and a club character. And even a little bit as a defender! As poor as he was under Conte last spring and as badly as he fits Postecoglou’s tactics, he still can be a competent professional footballer somewhere. He’s one of the last remaining players from the Mauricio Pochettino era with Kane, Eriksen, and (sob) Dele. I’ll be sorry to see him go, especially like this — on the fringes of the squad, quietly fading away.