Questions have been raised over Tottenham Hotspur’s signing of Xavi Simons over the summer after a tough start to life in north London, but TEAMtalk feels much of the blame for his struggles so far is on the club and also Thomas Frank.
Spurs splashed out £52million to bring the Netherlands international to the club towards the end of the summer transfer window, after failing in their attempts to sign Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze.
The north London club were left embarrassed after done deals for both Gibbs-White and Eze fell through at the last hurdle and ended up hijacking Chelsea’s proposed move for Simons to fill the void left by James Maddison’s season-ending injury.
However, Simons has struggled to make his mark at Tottenham thus far, failing to score and registering just the one assist in six outings.
And that has led to criticism of the player and whether or not Spurs potentially have another big-money flop on their hands.
Indeed, former Aston Villa striker Gabby Agbonlahor expressed his doubts about Tottenham’s signing of Simons on talkSPORT following the 2-2 draw against Bodo/Glimt on Tuesday evening.
“Simons, I’m not sure about,” Agbonlahor declared. “It’s early on, we don’t want to judge players after five, six games, but I’m really not sure about him.
“You know, sometimes you see a player and you’re like, ‘Oh okay, I like him, yeah, yeah, I like what he’s about.’ But I watch Simons and I’m like, ‘Oh, he’s on the floor.’ He doesn’t seem rapidly quick when I watch him as well.”
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Tottenham, Frank to blame for Simons’ struggles
While it’s clear to see that Simons is struggling to adapt to English football, questions have to be raised over a massive Tottenham transfer mistake over the summer and also Frank’s reluctance to play the former Leipzig man in his best position – although the two do go hand in hand.
Spurs’ failure to sign an out-and-out left-wing replacement for legendary former skipper Son Heung-min, coupled with the poor options Frank has available to him on the left has forced the new Tottenham boss into a bit of a corner.
Frank’s decision to use Simons as a left-winger to start out his Tottenham career was clearly, to some extent, a way of easing him in. After all, it was a position he did play previously before converting to a No.10 role with great success in Germany.
However, the fact that both Brennan Johnson and Wilson Odobert have offered next to nothing on the left has forced Frank’s hand when it comes to trying to have some productivity from that side of his attack.
But it’s time for the Dane to take the shackles off Simons and unleash him in the role where he has looked the most comfortable so far, albeit in small sample sizes, as Tottenham’s No.10 – starting at Leeds on Saturday.
Indeed, Simons’ Spurs and Netherlands teammate Micky van de Ven has backed the attacker to start making his mark at the club, after he made a big impact at Bodo/Glimt off the bench.
“He’s a really good player,” said Van de Ven, who headed Spurs’ first goal in Norway. “He can create a lot of special things. I think you saw he came on and did really well. You can see the creativity he has.”
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Tottenham have a deal in place with Rodrigo Bentancur to extend his stay at the club, sources have told TEAMtalk, with Spurs manager Thomas Frank playing a big role in keeping the player in north London.
Elsewhere, Spurs are reportedly eyeing a shock raid on Real Madrid for one of their top midfielders in what would be a stunning coup for the club, but one that TEAMtalk has raised two major red flags over.
And finally, Frank has hinted at a potential transfer move to sign a Bodo/Glimt star who ripped his defence to shreds in the Champions League draw in Norway on Tuesday evening, but TEAMtalk has assessed why a deal could end up being a major risk.