Tottenham Hotspur have an agreement with Bayern Munich through which they have an option to purchase on-loan striker Mathys Tel. However, if Tel does join the club permanently this summer, it could be for a significantly lower fee.
Tel’s loan contract, signed in January, had a purchase option for £50m, but there has been lots of background murmurs that Spurs would try and negotiate with Bayern for a lower fee. The German giants clearly have no plans for Tel and are keen to get rid of him. He has played well for Spurs in his loan stint, but £50m is by any measure a lot of £.
Now, according to Bayern blog cfbayern and German journalist Christian Falk, Bayern are apparently willing to negotiate for Tel, with his price potentially dropping as low as £30m.
I’ve been quite happy with Tel’s loan, considering where he started from. He apparently arrived at Spurs low on fitness and it took some time for him to get up to speed. While hardly a prolific scorer, by the end of the season Tel was showing a familiarity with Spurs’ tactics and was regularly putting in positive performances.
Is that worth £50m? Probably not, and even I was pulling a face at the prospect of spending that much money for Tel. But £30m? That’s a much more palatable option for a player that is still very young (just 20 years old) and has a high ceiling. I do not know if I’d want to go into a season of Champions League football with just Dominic Solanke, Mathys Tel, Son Heung-Min, and (maybe) Dane Scarlett as our striking options, but in a season that promises, like this year, a lot of football, Tel would have plenty of opportunities to play and hopefully continue to improve.
But hanging over this potential move is the continued uncertainty over Ange Postecoglu’s tenure as head coach. It’s not clear yet whether any potential purchase of Tel, discounted or otherwise, is contingent on Postecoglou staying at the club for another year, or if any new head coach would want him, even for £30m.