Tottenham should consider saving money as they look to replace James Maddison this summer.
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Tottenham should consider a Premier League transfer hijack as they look to replace James Maddison in the medium term. Maddison is likely to miss much of the season after suffering what looked to be a serious knee injury against Newcastle United in South Korea.
Spurs have lost a huge part of their starting XI just a couple of weeks before the new season, and there is no doubt that they need to replace Maddison with a new signing if they want to be competing for European spots in the Premier League and for a knockout spot in the Champions League.
A number of players have already been linked on the back of the Maddison injury, with Eberechi Eze, Jack Grealish and Conor Gallagher the early contenders.
But another player who could fit that role perfectly is Manchester City star James McAtee, who is on his way out of the Etihad Stadium this summer. McAtee has attracted plenty of praise from Pep Guardiola, but he is not getting enough minutes at present.
Guardiola said in April: “We haven’t seen it [from James] this season because I didn’t allow him to play minutes,” the boss said in his pre-match news conference. I cannot ask anything from these types of players when they do not play a lot of minutes. They could do better? No. In the Spurs game, maybe the first games he played in the Carabao Cup he played really good.
“Macca has this quality, he could’ve scored four goals [against Palace]. He has the ability to create chances, he is there. Of course that game we were better than Crystal Palace and you play better and the chances come for themselves. We scored five goals and we had four more clear chances. This season, I remember 2-0 against Leicester and we had two shots on target. That was not the team of the past eight or nine years.
“It’s a team that if the other side scores one or two, we create eight, nine chances. This season, this team scores one or two goals but we didn’t create much. Macca lives close to the box, quite similar to Phil and they are there. They have a sense [of goal], it’s difficult to train in the moment the ball is coming and after he didn’t score but it’s fine. As much minutes he plays he will score.”
Nottingham Forest are said to be pushing for a deal to sign McAtee despite their signing of Dan N’Doye, Forest are said to have offered £25million to sign McAtee, but City are said to want £30million or more this summer, with Everton also said to be showing an interest.
McAtee is obviously less proven than the likes of Eze and Grealish, but he is also available for a fraction of the price, and that could suit Spurs given the other areas they also need to strengthen this summer.
Frank on pre-season trip
Spurs boss Thomas Frank spoke to club media this week about the Asia trip as he and his side prepare to head to Germany to take on Bayern Munich. “I’m very pleased with two good competitive games,” he said. “I think that gave us a lot of answers, showed us a lot of good bits, showed us also what we need to work on, some really good individual performances, that’s good. Overall, good, the only big minus is (injury to) Maddison.
“Newcastle, they were extremely competitive, a fantastic test for us. A lot of good things to take away from the game, but also a lot of things we like to like to do better and improve. I think we started really well, really aggressive, scored good goal through Brennan, very aggressive in our high pressure, won the ball four, five, six times high, and could have created even more out of that in the last third with a killer pass.
“Then we got a little bit too deep at times, but then also had a big chance to Mathys. Second half, I thought we were more on top again, especially towards the end of the game, the high pressure was again better after some of the stops. We scored a good goal through high pressure, conceded a goal where we were not as good with the high pressure. That’s what we need to learn from.
“There was so much to learn from this game, and I'm actually happy that Newcastle, at times, made it a little difficult for us with their high pressure, but also at times we showed we can win it high and go the other way. So, we take the positives out of it and we'll adjust some things as well.”