Arsenal, a club known for their pursuit of younger talent, are believed to have had their eyes on Luke Shaw for quite some time.
Arsene Wenger has a reputation for nurturing and developing the very best young players. I’d argue that Luke Shaw, Southampton’s ace left-back, falls into this category.
It’s incredible what he’s already achieved in his career, despite being just 17-years-old. This season, he has put in 23 appearances for the Saints, as they fight for Premier League survival.
That he doesn’t look completely out of his depth up against Premier League big hitters is something of a marvel. It also reflects well on his career potential. He’s a player who could move on and become something very special indeed.
He’s from the same Southampton Academy who pumped out stars like Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Gareth Bale. The hope is that like Bale (who started off as a left-back), he could go on to become a real world-class talent.
He certainly has all the assets necessary to do this. His technical ability is excellent for a player of his age. He also has pace, energy and a footballing brain. He gets up and down the flanks very quickly and is developing a good crossing technique.
Naturally, there are areas of his game that still need work, but the same’s true of any footballer of his age. Still, there are plenty of reasons to get excited.
You can see why The Metro has handed Shaw a £16.5m price-tag. He just has that much potential. He’s a player who could join a club and then have his price-tag double over the next couple of seasons.
And it’s for this reason I’d like to see Tottenham perform a transfer coup and grab the player out from underneath their North London rivals. The Metro claim that Spurs are in the race for his signature along with Chelsea and Arsenal.
And whilst Arsenal have the reputation for developing young players, Tottenham have the ideal case study to tempt Shaw to make a White Hart Lane switch: Gareth Bale.
He made the move from the south coast to the white half of North London and has seen his prospects explode into life. He’s now widely regarded as one of the best footballers in the world. Could the same happen for Luke Shaw?
It’s not outside the realms of possibility and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to get one over on Arsenal.
What’s your take? Should Luke Shaw make a move to Arsenal, or Tottenham?
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Without doubt a position Spurs need to strengthen in, Benni is a great player but last few games his lack of pace to beat a player and place consistent telling crosses has been exposed. He also carries an over reliance on pace to recover poor positioning. 16.5 is questionable when players such as Cissokho are out there with proven european experience at a lower price tag.
You haven’t got a hope of buying him, we’ve got more money behind us at Saints than either you or Arsenal have.
When are you going to get it through into your heads, we are no longer a selling club since the Liebherr takeover.
We’re more likely to buy Bale back off you!
just why should the SAINTs sell him?? they do not need the money, so please stop being so arrogant he has already agreed a five year contract with Southampton.
One big problem, he’s a Southampton player and I think their ambitions are greater than Spurs
Why do we need him when we got fyers just get mountino or eriksen and maybe a couple of strikers
lol…check out the mouthy saints fans – comical!! ehh, maybe the player would like to play in the champions league? can you offer him that? maybe he’d like to move to Tottenhams brand new state of the art training facilities and learn from AVB – Bale made the move and is now in the top 3 players in the world, if he’d stayed at southampton he’d be just another left back. so saints, get used to the fact that you have nothing to offer the walcotts, chamberlains, bales of this world – NOTHING