Chelsea & Spurs are among the sides to have been linked with a talented teenager who has already scored a famous goal.
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With the summer transfer window freshly closed behind us, stories are starting to trickle through that tell us about the deals that didn’t quite get done, the failed bids made around the Premier League which could get revisited in the near future – and one audacious enquiry from Tottenham Hotspur, in particular, sets up an interesting story line.
According to TeamTalk’s sources, Spurs made a late enquiry concerning the availability of 19-year-old midfielder Senny Mayulu, best known for scoring PSG’s fifth and final goal against Inter Milan in May’s Champions League final – and while their advances were rebuffed, it sounds as if they will continue to monitor a sensationally talented player’s future.
They won’t be alone. Both Chelsea and Manchester City are said to be tracking Mayulu, who has just two years left on his contract at PSG. But just how good is the young Frenchman, and how likely is it that he moves to the Premier League in the near future?
Why Spurs & Chelsea are both chasing Senny Mayulu
Mayulu made a name for himself when he slashed the ball inside Yann Sommer’s near post with the confidence and poise of a player who plainly felt perfectly comfortable on the biggest stage in club football – but French football fans were familiar with him long before he put the cherry on top of PSG’s record-breaking 5-0 win in Munich.
Although the teenager has only made 16 senior starts, he already has seven goals to his name (including that fine finish against Inter) and four assists, and since making his debut as a 17-year-old last January has dazzled with his quick feet, vision, precise passing and poise under pressure.
His movement is remarkably fluid for such an inexperienced player and he is capable of finding sudden pockets of space that defenders simply can’t cover. His only apparent weakness is that he isn’t especially effective out of possession – a slight figure, he hasn’t shown that he can force turnovers and wouldn’t suit a team looking to produce consistent pressure off the ball.
As an attacking midfielder, though, his combination of creativity, technique and ability to play through and around far more experienced defenders makes him increasingly lethal. There’s little question that he is a special talent, and it’s no surprise that PSG knocked Spurs back.
Still, even though PSG have the funds to ensure that they keep him for the foreseeable future there is also a reason that three Premier League teams could be monitoring him – and there must be a good reason that they believe that the youngster can be lured away from the Parc des Princes. But are Mayulu’s suitors right to be so optimistic?
Will PSG sell Senny Mayulu?
Assuming TeamTalk’s story has its fact straight, PSG have made their present position on Mayulu’s future pretty plain – that he won’t be leaving. Get French Football News also reported back in June that they planned to offer the youngster a new contract off the back of his success in the Champions League final.
That contract remains unsigned, however, and his current deal – which expires at the end of June 2027, has little enough time left on it that clubs will have every reason to suspect that he might become available if he doesn’t agree an extension sooner rather than later.
The reasons that Mayulu has yet to agree a new deal remain obscure, and it’s unclear whether it is simply a matter of haggling over fine details or whether the French Under-20 international is demanding more money than PSG are willing to pay – or even whether he is actively looking to engineer a move in the near future.
It’s also unclear whether Mayulu will get any more game time this season. An adductor injury has prevented him from playing since the Club World Cup, but he in order to become a regular starter he will have to force his way past the likes of Vitinha and Fabián Ruiz. He may well reach a point, like many young talents before him, at which he sees a transfer as a sensible investment in his development.
All of that is speculation, of course, but Spurs are perhaps unlikely to have made an enquiry if they didn’t have some reason to believe that there was a realistic prospect that a deal could be struck. They were wrong in this instance, but the longer the midfielder goes without a contract extension, the more that the pressure will mount on PSG to sell him.
Mayulu is a special talent and it may well be that the clubs watching him are simply doing their due diligence in case the circumstances ever arise in which they can sign him – but with several sides supposedly circling, there may be slightly more to it. If the teenager remains on his current contract come January, this could be a transfer story to keep an eye on.