As the season winds down, the Tottenham Hotspur transfer rumors are heating up. And while we’re unlikely to get many indications of Spurs’ direction for the summer before the Europa League final, that’s not stopping a lot of publications from reporting on potential links to new players.
That said, Spurs’ hierarchy are certainly gaming out potential players based on the assumption that they’ll win on Wednesday and thus clinch Champions League football next season despite potentially finishing 17th in the league. Linking Spurs to Lille striker Jonathan David isn’t exactly rocket science — Spurs have been linked to the Canadian each of the past two summer windows — but L’Equipe is now reporting (paywalled, via SportWitness) that Tottenham are feeling out whether David would be interested in moving from France to North London. The other clubs mentioned as interested in David include Napoli, Juventus, and Aston Villa, as well as an unnamed “exotic club” offering him a “golden bridge” (o hai Saudi Arabia).
David let his contract at Lille wear down despite a lot of clubs interested in him over the past few windows, and is leaving the club on a free transfer this summer. This suggests that he’s after a huge wage package as befits one of the better strikers in the market. Tottenham are one of the clubs that can likely offer him a good wage package, and likely would need to. Villa’s interest makes them a compelling option, but they are running unsustainably in their wages to turnover ratio. If Spurs win on Wednesdsay, that makes them a compelling option and I think they could convince David to join, no matter who the manager is next season.
As a free transfer Jonathan David becomes an attractive option, especially if Spurs (as expected) try and move Richarlison on this summer. He can play wide or centrally, can drop deeper if needed, and has 25 goals and 12 assists in all competitions this season for Lille. He’d make a nice complement to Dominic Solanke up top and would provide solid depth and rotation, likely even challenging Dom for starts. The only question is whether he’d want to come, and we won’t know if we can be a compelling option until after Bilbao.