On the latest episode of The View From The Lane, a Tottenham Hotspur podcast for The Athletic, Jack Pitt-Brooke, James Maw and Charlie Eccleshare have been discussing the latest goings-on at the North London club and looking ahead to the game against Sheffield United.
One topic of conversation on the recent episode, which was titled: ‘Could Dier and Ndombele go?‘, was the future of the English centre-back Eric Dier.
The former Sporting Lisbon man has started both games for Jose Mourinho’s side since the Premier Leauge restart and impressed in their recent 2-0 win against West Ham; earning a 7.57 rating for his performance.
It has been suggested that Spurs are considering a new deal for the 26-year-old, with his current contract set to expire at the end of next season.
Here’s what Eccleshare had to say about the England international:
“His contract expires next summer and as yet, he hasn’t had an offer to extend that. There are fears as well that his ban is going to be longer than a couple of games. We could be witnessing almost the beginning of the end for Dier, or, given the fact that he has played really well and he started Tottenham’s last six games.
“I think it’s January 2018 [when it was] the last time he did that. He had appendicitis and I think that is one of these things that we underestimate how much that took out of him. He said he was constantly getting associated illnesses and feeling weak and it was extremely frustrating, were his words.
“All the talk before the resumption of the season was that he looked really sharp in training, he looked leaner, he looked fitter. I think we saw that against West Ham and against [Manchester] United. So he’s at a bit of a crossroads. I feel Spurs have a decision to make there as well because we’ve seen them make probably the wrong decision on quite a lot of players with them sticking around for too long.
“You think [Christian] Eriksen, you think Danny Rose, arguably the manager [Mauricio] Pochettino as well. So it feels like one that’s really important to get right.”
TIF Thoughts…
As Eccleshare mentions, the FA are still yet to decide on the extent of Dier’s punishment, after he climbed into the stands to confront a fan following the FA Cup defeat against Norwich City back in March (per BBC).
Considering he helped Spurs to just their fifth clean sheet of the season in last week’s win against the Hammers, you can certainly argue that it would be a blow for Mourinho to lose him for some of the remaining fixtures.
Should Dier get a new contract?
Yes
No
It will be interesting to see whether or not the club does decide to offer the 26-year-old a new contract in the near future. The Englishman has now featured 16 times in the Premier League this season, and as Eccleshare suggests, has started the last six games, so it would perhaps be a surprise if Mourinho wasn’t keen to extend his current deal.