Victor Wanyama is currently finding himself out of favour and out of gametime at Tottenham Hotspur. The Kenyan was linked with a move away from Spurs this past summer, but the move fell through late in the transfer window. Fresh Celtic links though, will offer the midfielder a lot of hope.
Wanyama’s last appearance this season came against his former club Southampton. He played only one minute, coming off the bench. In the game before that, Wanyama had played 23 minutes in the club’s away game at Leicester City.
In all competitions, the midfielder has played only three games this season. Last season, the former Hoops man had appeared 22 times in all competitions for the club. But over time, he has witnessed his time in the club’s first-team dry up.
Wanyama’s best time at the club came in the 2016-17 campaign when Spurs had finished second in the Premier League behind eventual Champions Chelsea.
In that campaign, Wanyama had established a midfield pairing with Mousa Dembele. He had played 36 times in the Premier League and had played 47 times in all competitions. He had also scored four times that season.
Since then, game time has reduced for him. He has also missed 47 games due to injury and one of them was a knee injury that he had suffered in the 2017-18 campaign. Harry Winks’ emergence though, saw his position get taken away in the heart of the park.
The signing of Tanguy Ndombele from Lyon for a fee of £53.8million didn’t help. Moussa Sissoko’s rise to prominence last season saw Wanyama’s last hope of breaking into the first-team get taken away too.
As far as Celtic go, they currently play a 4-2-3-1 system, with Scott Brown and Callum McGregor the preferred midfield pivot. Nir Bitton is capable of playing in the midfield, with Olivier Ntcham and Ryan Christie also well capable of playing in that role.
But as things stand, there is only one proper defensive midfielder in the side. That is Eboue Kouassi. The Ivorian has found himself out favour – much like Wanyama and is yet to make a single first-team appearance so far this season. Fresh reports have stated that he could be willing to leave the club in the upcoming January transfer window.
That will be good news for Wanyama. While Kouassi needs regular first-team football because of being of a tender age of 21, the £13.5m-rated Kenyan may not demand as much regular game time as the former Krasnodar man.
He would, of course, not want to play as Kouassi. But with the season now set to quicken up after the international break, Celtic will play more games within a lesser time period. They would need depth to deal with that.
Wanyama is someone who has already won titles with Celtic in the past. He has the experience of competition at the very top level during his time in North London and the club’s younger players would learn a lot from someone like him. And since he will likely be right up for the move, there will never problems of commitment.
His contract expires in the summer of 2021, therefore, Wanyama’s purchase should not be too expensive either.