While the mood around the club has dramatically improved following their Europa League win on Thursday night, Tottenham Hotspur have had to deal with plenty of problems this season.
The most significant has been the near-endless stream of injuries, which has made it impossible for Ange Postecoglou to field his first-choice defence for much of the campaign.
So, it’s not surprising to hear that Daniel Levy and Co are looking to add to their defensive ranks in the summer.
In fact, recent reports have touted a former Premier League player with a move to N17, a player who’s been compared to Cristian Romero.
Tottenham Hotspur transfer news
It looks like it will be a big summer for Spurs this year, so before getting to the player in question, it’s worth looking at a few of the club’s other targets, such as Oihan Sancet.
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The Athletic Bilbao monster will reportedly cost around £69m in the coming months, and while that is a lot, it might well be worth it, as in just 30 appearances, he has scored 17 goals and provided three assists, which comes out to a goal involvement every 1.30 games, almost exclusively from midfield.
An even more expensive signing could be Matheus Cunha, with reports from earlier this month claiming that the North Londoners would be willing to spend £75m to secure his services ahead of the chasing pack.
Again, it’s an enormous sum of money, but given the fact that the Brazilian international has scored 16 goals and provided four assists in 30 appearances this season, it might well be value for money.
However, as mentioned above, bringing in some more defensive cover appears to be one of the club’s priorities this summer, which helps explain their interest in Eric Garcia.
Yes, according to a recent report from Spain, Tottenham are interested in signing the former Manchester City gem, who is currently on loan with Girona, from Barcelona.
In fact, the report goes a step further, claiming that the Lilywhites are ready to make an offer of around €15m for the Spanish defender, which amounts to about £13m.
It could be a bargain for a relatively young centre-back who has plenty of experience playing at a high level, and he’s already won comparisons to Romero.
How Garcia compares to Romero
So, before getting into the other reasons Spurs might want to sign Garcia this summer, it’s worth exploring this comparison to Romero and where it comes from.
Well, in this instance, it stems from FBref, which looks at players in similar positions in Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and Europa League, then creates a list of the ten most comparable players for each one and, in this instance, has concluded that the Argentine star is the fourth most similar centre-back to the Spaniard.
The best way to see where this comparison has come from is to look at the underlying metrics in which the pair rank closely, including, but not limited to, non-penalty expected goals plus assists, shots on target, passes into the penalty area, live passes, goal-creating actions, tackles, blocks and more, all per 90.
Non-Penalty Expected G+As
0.16
0.14
Shots on Target
0.40
0.53
Passes into the Penalty Area
0.48
0.53
Live Passes
73.4
71.5
Goal-Creating Actions
0.32
0.26
Tackles
2.06
2.17
Blocks
1.35
1.18
Aerial Duel Win %
55.6%
60.6%
On top of winning comparisons to the World Cup-winning Lilywhites ace, the £99k-per-week “monster,” as dubbed by talent scout Jacek Kulig, also has some seriously impressive underlying numbers in his own right.
For example, FBref places him in the top 1% of centre-backs across Europe’s top five leagues for goals, goals plus assists, shots on target, non-penalty expected goals, penalties won and tackles in the middle third, the top 3% for long pass completion and passes into the final third, the top 5% for progressive passes and much more, all per 90.
Ultimately, even if he cost more than is being reported, Spurs would be smart to sign Garcia, so if they can get him for around £13m, then that would be a no-brainer, as he’d be an ideal backup for Romero and Micky van de Ven at the very least, if not a competitor for game time.
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