OPINION
Mauricio Pochettino revealed that Davinson Sanchez had already defied his expectations since joining Tottenham in the summer, and the 21-year-old will no doubt be even better next season.
In his press conference ahead of Saturday’s game against Stoke City, the Spurs manager shared that the 21-year-old defender had taken to life in the Premier League quicker than he expected.
Journalist Ben Pearce shared the news from Pochettino’s conference on Friday via his personal Twitter account:
#thfc Pochettino on Davinson Sanchez: "“Our expectation when we signed Davinson was he was a player with enormous potential who was, sure, going to help the team. But of course his adaptation to the team and the Premier League was I think much better than we expected."
— Ben Pearce (@BenPearceSpurs) April 6, 2018
#thfc Pochettino: "“We had a lot of information about his character but I think he surprised us much better than we expected, because he’s always available to learn, to improve. He accepts criticism, corrections, and that for me is the most important thing."
— Ben Pearce (@BenPearceSpurs) April 6, 2018
Sanchez arrived in London from Ajax in the summer after Spurs paid £42million for his services, as reported by the BBC.
The 21-year-old centre-back has since made 36 appearances across all competitions and has looked like a great signing in his outings.
Sanchez has had a few worrying moments in a Spurs shirt, such as the game against Bournemouth when he was dispossessed a few times and caught out of position on multiple occasions.
Also in the match against Juventus in Turin earlier in the season, Sanchez showed how nerves could affect his performance as he hesitated to make tackles in that game.
However given the fact that Pochettino stated Sanchez’s willingness to learn, all these errors will be gone from his future displays.
The 21-year-old will be a much-improved player next season, not just from learning from his mistakes, but due to the fact he can start the campaign quicker as he will know the Premier League this time around.
Sanchez will also no doubt shine brighter next season due to Spurs being resigned to lose Toby Alderweireld in the summer, as previously reported by Belgian newspaper HLN.
Without the 29-year-old defender overshadowing him, Sanchez will step-up his displays in order for fans not to be disappointed over losing the experienced centre-back.
With all this in mind Pochettino may claim that Sanchez has already defied expectations at the club, but next season the 21-year-old will be a revelation compared to his campaign.