Thomas Frank has expressed an interest in signing a rising 23-year-old defender
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Tottenham Hotspur have expressed an interest in signing highly-rated Sunderland defender Dennis Cirkin in January. The North London club are thought to be assessing a number of different left-back options and are particularly interested in recruiting players that fit their homegrown quota in order to boost their squad depth in UEFA competitions, according to TBR Football.
Spurs could only name a 22-man squad for the Champions League group stage due to their lack of homegrown and club-trained players, and this is an issue that Thomas Frank is keen to work on improving.
Why Tottenham are interested in Dennis Cirkin
Dennis Cirkin was born in Dublin but moved to London when he was just three years old. He spent a number of years on the books at Tottenham Hotspur growing up before signing his first professional contract at Sunderland in 2021 at the age of 19. The Black Cats were playing League One football at the time but won promotion via the play-offs in Cirkin’s first year as a professional player. He racked up a total of 41 appearances in his debut season while contributing three assists.
Cirkin remained a regular the following season as Sunderland finished in a very commendable sixth position in their first term back in the second tier. Cirkin scored five times that season but missed large chunks of the 2023/24 campaign due to injury. The 23-year-old notably played 39 matches last term, scoring three and making two assists as the team returned to the top-flight for the first time since 2017. However, he’s yet to play this season in the Premier League.
He missed a large chunk of pre-season due to a wrist injury and has since dropped down the pecking order following the arrival of summer signing Reinildo from Atletico Madrid. He has just one year to run on his contract at the Stadium of Light and could potentially be seen as a cut-price target for the Lillywhites and crucially one that’d meet the homegrown quota.
Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris comments on Dennis Cirkin future
In an interview with our sister outlet, The Sunderland Echo, Regis Le Bris was asked if Dennis Cirkin would be an important player. He responded: "We'll see. “We've stepped up as a club, and as a player, you have to do the same. Because of the injury, it wasn't possible for him to show his qualities in pre-season. We'll see later."
Meanwhile, sporting director Kristjaan Speakman has confirmed that Sunderland plan to resume talks with Cirkin over an extension to his contract. He said: "We've had similar situations in the past.
“It's never really been a concern for us because we're on top of the conversation. So there's no ambiguity on where it's at. It's just so difficult over the transfer window to do everything, and we've got some outstanding topics to discuss and to resolve, and they're two of them. So we'll do as we've always done. We'll continue to have those conversations and get to a consensus and a decision on it."