Tottenham Hotspur could be about to let a player with plenty of untapped potential leave - and Chelsea and Aston Villa are waiting in the wings.
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Tottenham Hotspur made more than a few mistakes as they bought and sold players over the last few seasons - and may be in the process of making yet another, with reports suggesting that they could lose one of their most promising young players in the coming weeks. It’s a loss which could be Chelsea or Aston Villa’s gain.
On Sunday, The Athletic reported that Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergvall wanted to leave the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, with Chelsea and Villa among the teams who have been tracking him for some time. So how did we get here, and what should Bergvall’s next move be?
Would Spurs be making a mistake letting Lucas Bergvall leave?
Bergvall’s desire to depart appears to have come about after Spurs began making moves to sign two expensive new midfielders as part of a wider refurbishment of a squad that has been involved in consecutive relegation battles – Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali and West Ham’s Mateus Fernandes.
Both are fine – if exceptionally expensive – players, but Spurs’ efforts to sign them also send a signal to players like Bergvall that they are not a priority for first-team minutes in the immediate future, whether or not those negotiations are successful. For Bergvall, who was voted as the fans’ Player of the Year in 2025 after an impressive debut season, it seems to felt like a snub that wasn’t worth bearing in silence.
He won’t have been encouraged by the fact that new head coach Roberto De Zerbi doesn’t seem to be too keen to play him. The 20-year-old, who has come on as a substitute in both of Sweden’s World Cup matches thus far, played just 51 minutes for Spurs after the Italian’s appointment without starting a match. There is little evidence that regular starts would come with patience, either.
De Zerbi seems to prefer a more physical and combative type of midfielder than Bergvall, who has yet to really establish what kind of midfielder he is – as it stands, the Swede plays like a collection of traits and technicality without a clearly defined role, a jack of all trades type of player. De Zerbi’s system doesn’t seem to have space for a generalist in midfielder.
Tonali and Fernandes may end up costing close to £200m for the pair if Spurs are fortunate enough to win both transfer battles, but they are proven box-to-box players in the mould that De Zerbi appears to want – and both are better at breaking down opposing play than Bergvall has been so far, while lacking none of his passing range of graceful ball carrying skill.
Few sides in Spurs’ situation would be happy to jettison a player of Bergvall’s talent in favour of spending immense sums on others, but then Spurs have far greater resources than most clubs who spend two years hovering precariously above the Premier League’s relegation zone. It seems that they would prefer to flex their financial muscle and risk losing a talented player around whom the team could perhaps have been partly built.
The Athletic haven’t reported on whether Spurs are prepared to let Bergvall, who is under contract until 2031, leave the club or how much they might ask for his signature, but their interest in Tonali and Fernandes and De Zerbi’s unwillingness to start the youngster seem to signal their intentions. Given Bergvall’s talent, there is every chance that his sale will come to look distinctly unwise in years to come, at least if a team can figure out the best way to use him. Chelsea and Aston Villa could be among the teams to take that chance.
Could Chelsea or Aston Villa sign Bergvall this summer?
As it stands, there are no suggestions that Spurs have received any offers for Bergvall or been involved in any talks about a deal – or, more accurately, they haven’t been in any talks since January, when they reportedly fielded calls from multiple Premier League teams who had noticed that Bergvall’s playing time had become less consistent.
Chelsea and Aston Villa are the two sides known to have made enquiries during the winter transfer window. Those approaches were dismissed out of hand at the time, with Spurs then viewing Bergvall as a talent with a key role to play in the club’s future, but De Zerbi’s arrival appears to have changed their thinking.
It’s not clear as yet whether either side will make another effort to sign Bergvall, but both are likely to be in the market for a midfielder of some stripe. Chelsea seem keen to add depth in that position regardless of whether or not they can keep hold of Enzo Fernández, whose likely departure to Real Madrid will only add to the urgency of their search. Aston Villa, meanwhile, are still trying to plug a frustrating hole which has never been convincingly filled since Douglas Luiz first left. Even Luiz’s return didn’t offer a lasting solution.
Bergvall certainly fits Chelsea’s youth-focussed transfer policy, even if his best role is yet to be defined and it’s not clear that he would be able to offer the same degree of defensive cover as a player like Fernández. They are a club who seldom pass up the opportunity to develop a talented player.
Villa, meanwhile, have a more fluid midfield set-up which would perhaps be a better fit for Bergvall – Unai Emery’s system needs players who can fulfil a variety of different roles and who have a strong technical profile. Whether they’re prepared to pay what would likely be a hefty fee for Bergvall is another matter.
Bergvall may not get his wish to leave Spurs this summer simply because his transfer value is likely to be very high, but they seem increasingly likely to welcome the opportunity to sell him in order to reinvest the money in player like Tonali and Fernandes who fit De Zerbi’s tactical vision. Where he ends up remains an open question – but he’s likely to have plenty of suitors over the coming months, with Chelsea and Aston Villa only the tip of the iceberg.