BBC Match of the Day pundit Jermaine Jenas has said that Tottenham should consider selling Christian Eriksen and using the money to build a team that can challenge for the Premier League title.
Talking on BT Sport after the FA Cup defeat (Sunday, 4pm) against Crystal Palace, Jenas said that Tottenham need to sell before they can buy players and that this is stopping their development.
He pointed to Liverpool selling Coutinho as an example of how a sale that might seem to hurt a team can be used to its advantage.
“Look at Liverpool with Coutinho,” Jenas said. “That hurt them but they used the money to make a better team. Klopp brought in Naby Keita and Allison.
“Tottenham might have to do the same and the man they might have to sell is Eriksen.”
OPINION
Jenas makes a good point here. No one player is bigger than a club and every player has a price that means it makes good sense to sell. Liverpool fans didn’t want to lose Coutinho, but if they could see how Klopp was going to spend the money and where they are now in the Premier League, they would have been queueing up to drive him to Barcelona themselves. Eriksen, on a reported £75k-a-week, doesn’t look like signing a new contract at Tottenham and his current deal is set to expire in 2020. That means a summer sale might well be in the interests of Tottenham, but only if 100% of the money is going to be given to Pochettino to reinvest. If Tottenham sell him and don’t reinvest then it would be a disaster. It feels like Tottenham are at a crossroads at the moment and potentially on the brink of something big. Pochettino has worked wonders so far but must do his best work to ensure that Tottenham can make the last step up and challenge for the Premier League.