Tottenham fans inside the Football Transfer Tavern are very quickly casting their minds back to the sale of Gareth Bale in 2013.
If you had said to Spurs fans at that point that Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb would be their first choice midfield partnership in 2015, they would have looked at you as if you were crazy.
With Paulinho and Etienne Capoue looking like a fine attacking and defensive midfield partnership that were signed with that ‘Bale money’, right now at the tail end of their second season at White Hart Lane, it simply hasn’t worked out for the duo.
In all credit to Mason and Bentaleb, the Spurs academy duo have proved that a midfield solution has been much closer to home than ever first thought but this doesn’t mean for one second that Spurs fans wouldn’t like to see some fresh faces in these positions this summer transfer window.
With Mauricio Pochettino embarking on a clear out that is likely to include Benjamin Stambouli, Younes Kaboul and Emmanuel Adebayor among others, the Argentine boss will have a chance to bring in players who he rates and who can work as part of his expansive style of play.
This has led our Spurs fans to surmise who they believe could be coming in to White Hart Lane this summer to help their bid for a top four finish and as some pipe up and shout, the Premier League title!
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Click on Spurs mascot ‘Chirpy’ below to reveal the 5 midfielders to help Tottenham win the Premier League next season.
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Yevhen Konoplyanka
Ukrainian internationals haven’t really succeeded in English football; you have the likes of Andriy Shevchenko, Oleg Luzhny and Spurs old boy Sergei Rebrov.
But one man who could break the mould is Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk’s star man Yevhen Konoplyanka.
You’ll remember that Liverpool almost pulled of the signature of the Ukrainian winger back in the January transfer window of 2014 only for Dnipro to pull out of the £16 million deal despite Reds chief Ian Ayre making the decision to fly to Eastern Europe to get the deal done.
In fairness to Konoplyanka, he has remained loyal to his one and only club side in his career to date and currently can boast being a Europa League finalist although Sevilla are heavy favourites to beat their Ukrainian opposition in Warsaw.
So if Konoplyanka indeed wins or loses the Europa League Final, he could realise this moment as a crossroads in his career where he embarks on a new challenge abroad.
After all, Metro reported on Wednesday that Spurs have agreed terms on a deal to sign the Ukrainian poster boy.
Dele Alli
Having secured his signature back in the January transfer window ahead of returning him back to MK Dons on loan for the remainder of a League One campaign in which Karl Robinson’s side achieved promotion to the Championship, Spurs fans can look forward to seeing Dele Alli next season.
The 6 ft 2 in 19-year-old may be expected to be on the fringes of Spurs’ first eleven next season, such is his inexperience, but who’s to say he won’t be accelerated into Mauricio Pochettino’s starting eleven?
An England Under-19 international, Pochettino has already proved that he is willing to start the likes of Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb ahead of expensive underachievers like Paulinho and perhaps Alli will start to live up to the hype that has surrounded his fledgling career to date right away?
Yohan Cabaye
A transfer that makes total sense no matter which way you look at it?
Having fled Newcastle United for his native France and the riches of Paris Saint-Germain back in the January transfer window of 2014, it hasn’t really worked out for Yohan Cabaye at the Parc Des Princes.
Struggling to break Laurent Blanc’s trusted midfield trio of Thiago Motta, Marco Verratti and Blaise Matuidi, the former Magpies star has had to become used to a bit-part role – not what he envisaged when joining Les Parisiens.
What makes sense for Tottenham in a potential swoop is that Cabaye already boasts vast Premier League experience, performing 79 times for Newcastle while representing something of an expert from set pieces.
Our resident Spurs fans would take Cabaye in a heartbeat and with bigger fish to fry perhaps, Cabaye’s Parisian dream may come to a shuddering halt this summer?
Andre Ayew
Andre Ayew has time and again been linked with a switch away from Marseille to the Premier League but every transfer window, it has never came to fruition.
While Tottenham currently boasts Nacer Chadli and Erik Lamela as their favoured options on the wing, can any Spurs fan really claim that this is the best they can do?
The footballing world knows that there is a star player deep inside Lamela but after two full seasons in England thus far, the Argentine trickster has truly become one of the most frustrating players to watch, flattering to deceive on multiple occasions.
One man who may fair a bit better is Ayew who has racked up a whopping 159 Ligue 1 appearances with Marseille, appearing in not only the Champions League but also the World Cup on two occasions with Ghana.
Used to the biggest stage, Ayew is one of those players who is bound to end up at a Premier League club sooner or later but will it be at Spurs?
Morgan Schneiderlin
The man who is wanted by everybody but the man who Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino has already worked with.
Could this prove the decisive factor in the Southampton midfielder trading St Mary’s for White Hart Lane this summer we wonder?
With Tottenham’s North London foes Arsenal vying with Spurs for the French international’s signature, Pochettino’s personal touch would have to be of utmost importance to the player, what with Arsenal competing in the Champions Leagu – a stage in which the player clearly has designs on reaching.
Nevertheless, we have seen before with the likes of Jan Vertonghen and Hugo Lloris that a place in Europe’s elite competition isn’t the be all and end all.
One thing is for sure; if Schneiderlin was to choose White Hart Lane over Emirates Stadium this summer, this fact alone would endear him to the Spurs faithful as a fan favourite from the off!
