Tottenham Hotspur have had a tremendous season, and our resident Spurs fans are in a positive mood, despite losing out on the Premier League title to Leicester City.
If it hadn’t been for Leicester City’s miraculous campaign we might be sitting here now reflecting on a first Premier League title for Spurs.
As it turned out Tottenham fell short after an ill-tempered 2-2 draw at Chelsea but the disappointment should not shroud what has been a hugely successful year.
Players like Dele Alli have far exceeded expectations whilst in Harry Kane, Spurs look to have a genuine world class forward.
There’s plenty to look forward to for the north London club, and with a few strong additions the club will no doubt be challenging for the title next year.
If there’s going to be ins however, there will also be players heading the other way out of White Hart Lane.
Tottenham are ready to set sail on another Champions League voyage next season, but our landlord here at the Transfer Tavern thinks these FOUR players will be marooned……
[ffc-gallery]
PRESS THE IMAGE BELOW TO SEE THE FOUR PLAYERS!
[/ffc-gallery]
Ryan Mason
Mason suffered a lot with injuries in his early years, which meant he didn’t play a competitive game for Spurs until last season.
Once he had broken through though, it looked as if he was going to be a permanent fixture in central midfield.
In 2014-15 Mason made 31 appearances for the north London outfit and bigger things were expected this year.
Unfortunately for him, the signings of Dele Alli and Eric Dier, knocked him down the pecking order at the club, especially given Alli’s sparkling form.
Mason has been limited to 21 appearances this year of which 14 have been as a sub and having already missed a lot of playing time through injury in his career, he’ll be itching to move for first team football.
Nacer Chadli
The Belgian has a similar story to Mason.
Although not suffering with injury, Chadli only began to perform last season for Tottenham.
After an indifferent 2013-14, the winger became one of Spurs’ most important stars in 2014/15, featuring in 35 games and scoring eleven goals.
Chadli, like Mason has seen his playing time limited this year however.
Erik Lamela looks to be the player Spurs thought they’d signed a few years ago whilst Son Heung-Min also seems to be ahead of Chadli in Mauricio Pochettino’s thoughts.
The 26-year-old clearly has the talent to play at the highest level, but should look elsewhere for a starting berth.
Tom Carroll
The young Englishman has been threatening to secure a starting place in the Spurs midfield for some time.
Always looking assured on the ball Carroll has the potential to be a good Premier League player, but as is the way for a lot of players at Spurs, he finds game time scarce due to the likes of Alli, Christian Eriksen and Moussa Dembele.
Carroll is by no means near his peak age as a midfielder and has plenty to learn, but will only do so if he’s playing regularly.
Spurs cannot offer him this at the moment thanks to their star studded midfield and so it might be time for Carroll to jump ship.
Nabil Bentaleb
The recurring theme here is that the stars of 2014/15 have become the squad players of 2015/16 and no player demonstrates this more than Bentaleb.
It’s testament to Spurs’ recruitment that these players have been replaced by better options, but that will make for little consolation for the likes of the Algerian.
Admittedly, Bentaleb has been blighted with a couple of significant injuries this year but when he has been fit he’s been limited to two Premier League starts.
He’s a young player who is evidently good enough to play as a holding midfielder for a Premier League side, but looking at Spurs squad, it won’t be with them.
