Good day, and welcome to this edition of Miguel Delaney Says Stuff. If you’re new to this series (I’m also new to this series), it’s when we report on football journalist and erstwhile transfer rumormonger Miguel Delaney when he writes articles about transfer rumors that essentially report on Things He Has Heard. Some of them are probably accurate. Others… well, maybe not. But he definitely has Heard Things™ and so we are here to summarize them.
I’m being a little cheeky, but Delaney does have the reputation, along with CBS Sports’ Ben Jacobs, of writing up articles reporting on things he’s heard from various agents and elsewhere. That doesn’t mean these rumors are not accurate, but it doesn’t mean they ARE accurate either! Isn’t transfer season fun?
In today’s edition, Miggy has been pretty busy, because he’s dropped a BUNCH of names in his transfer article on Tottenham’s upcoming summer in the Independent. Here’s the Readers’ Digest version:
Roberto De Zerbi wants to raid Brighton & Hove Albion, his old club, for their best players, including defensive mid Carlos Baleba, central defender Jean Paul van Hecke, and goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen.
It’s pretty unlikely Spurs can sign three players from Brighton this summer, so the club are looking at other targets, including (as we know) Bournemouth defender Marcos Senesi and Liverpool left back Andy Robertson, but also City defender John Stones and backup keeper James Trafford.
Spurs highly-rated defender Luka Vuskovic is expected to sign a new contract and then return to Hamburg for a second season on loan.
Micky van de Ven, contrary to popular opinon on this board and elsewhere, apparently wants to stay at Spurs and establish himself as part of De Zerbi’s new look defense.
OK! Now let’s talk about these Things Miggy Said. First, Migs goes on to suggest that Brighton are not going to want to sell Baleba, and that he could cost up to £100m. That’s a lot of money for a pure defensive midfield destroyer when we have a Joao Palhinha at home who would cost significantly less to sign permanently. I’m also wondering about the Van Hecke rumors — they only would make sense if both Cuti Romano and Radu Dragusin leave the club, which at this point does feel pretty likely. I get the sense from Delaney that it could be either Senesi or Van Hecke, but if Vuskovic does decide he wants another year in Germany to play with his brother, that might suggest another defensive opening. As for Bart Verbruggen… well, I’m inclined to sell Vicario, keep Kinsky, and sign Trafford to compete with him. Even though Spurs don’t have European football next season, there’s still no good reason not to sign an English backup keeper for squad purposes.
John Stones is another interesting target. The young future of England’s defense is now 31 with an expiring contract at Manchester City, which means Spurs could scoop him up early for free if they want to. I guess it depends on whether they want to, who’s leaving, who’s staying, and whether he’d be a good fit at Tottenham or not. He played less than 500 minutes under Pep this season. I don’t have a good read on whether this is a good idea or not.
I do, however, take some comfort in the idea that Micky van de Ven is ready to commit his future to Tottenham. I wonder about his long-term future as he’s a center back who is wildly pace-dependent, and I don’t know what happens if he were to lose a step in the near to mid future. But I do know I like him, I’d like to keep him, and he’s definitely one of the first players on my team sheet next season.
As mentioned, we’re going to get a LOT of rumors over the next few days and weeks now that the plug in the door to Bat Country has been forced out. I don’t have a firm sense of what, if any, of the Things Miguel Delaney Says will actually happen. All I know is that he said these things, and I’m here to tell you about them.
Until next time!