OPINION
Daniel Levy should have Tottenham fans drooling after it was reported that the London club has been in talks with the agent of Monaco playmaker Youri Tielemans.
According to reliable Belgian journalist Kristoff Terreur, Spurs and Manchester United have both spoken with the 22-year-old’s representative as he weighs up his next move after impressing while on loan at Leicester in the second-half of the season.
Tielemans was arguably Leicester’s best player since joining them on a temporary basis in the January transfer window, but that has not stopped Monaco from wanting to get rid of the £40million-rated Belgium international.
“There have been talks, the agent’s had talks with Spurs and Man United about him,” Terreur told Sky Sports’ Transfer Talk podcast [14m25s], as shown via their live transfer blog on Sunday [02:49pm].
“Not sure he’s the first choice at both clubs either but Monaco, they want to sell him and get rid of him.
“He’s not in the plans of the manager. His good performances have done what they wanted, he’s now worth more than he was worth in January when they rated him already at £40million.
“He’s happy at Leicester, he enjoyed his time but it’s now the question if Leicester are going to spend most of their transfer budget on one player.”
Tielemans made 13 appearances for Leicester in the Premier League after joining them on loan and managed to impress as he scored three goals and supplied five assists from the heart of the Foxes’ midfield.
According to WhoScored, the former Anderlecht playmaker completed 85 per cent of his passes for the East Midlands side, while Spurs’ best playmaker Christian Eriksen ended the season with an 81 per cent pass completion in the Premier League.
Tielemans is a different type of playmaker to Eriksen as the Belgian sits in a much deeper-lying role compared to his Danish counterpart. However they still scored a similar amount of goals per match and the Monaco dazzler actually made more assists per appearance.
It’s not to say that Tielemans is better than Eriksen but the Dane looks likely to leave Spurs in the summer due to him entering the final year of his contract and even though they aren’t exactly similar midfielders, the Belgian could no doubt fill any creative void due to Eriksen’s potential exit.
Levy had been criticised by fans for not splashing any cash on transfers in the last two windows, but with talks already underway with Tieleman’s agent, it sure seems as though the Tottenham chairman is ready to wow fans with a superb summer move for Tielemans.