Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
There we have it one of the worst kept secrets in football has finally been made public, that of course being Manchester City’s interest in Kyle Walker. To be honest though there were never all that shy about their admiration for the player in the first place and now their courtship looks set to move on to the next level.
That is because they have tabled a £50m bid for the Tottenham right back and it looks set to be the magic number in which to prize Walker away from the Premier League runners up from last season and to The Etihad for what would be a world record fee for a defender.
After Manchester City were foiled in their bid to sign Dani Alves earlier in the week it put Daniel Levy in a position of strength in regards to any negotiations and it was quite apparent that any notions that City had of getting the player ‘on the cheap’ were were not to be fulfilled.
Once again Daniel Levy has proven to be a tough nut to crack in terms of getting value for a player but ultimately everyone has their price and with £50m plus add-ons being tabled, it looks as if that will be the magic amount which ends the former Sheffield United defender’s stint with Tottenham.
And the Yorkshire club themselves will be celebrating as they will be set for a £5m windfall after they inserted a 10% sell on fee clause in the deal that saw the 27 year old move to White Hart Lane, which when you consider they are planning for life in the EFL Championship this season that will come in very handy indeed.
With the sizeable fee now agreed it is just left to the formalities of the medical to be passed before the deal is finally completed, with this in mind it means that Walker will therefore not join up with his current employers pre-season training sessions that start on Friday but he will however go to the USA for Manchester City’s summer tour.
For Tottenham the hope will be that they can now finally focus on landing transfer targets of their own as they are still yet to bring any new faces into the club during transfer window. That however could be a situation that is rectified by the signing of Juan Foyth from Estudiantes for £10m.
That though would not be a replacement for the outgoing Walker and the decision from the Tottenham hierarchy will be whether to put their trust in near namesake Kyle Walker-Peters as an understudy to Kieran Trippier at right back next season or look for another name to bolster their defensive ranks.
Mauricio Pochettino has gone on record and said that Walker-Peters will be given game time after his impressive exploits in the Under 20 World Cup with England and it could well mean that Tottenham do not have to source a replacement.
That doesn’t mean though that they will be able to bank £50m as their will now be an expectation from their fans to reinvest that money into adding players into a squad that does look threadbare in comparison to their nearest title rivals, especially as one of those clubs has now been made stronger to the detriment of Spurs.
The club would have taken a measured approach when the initial rumours of Kyle Walker wanting to leave began to pick up steam, they have obviously taken the view that not only is a replacement ready and waiting but it should mean that their is no real detriment to the first eleven.
That is something that was witnessed towards the tail end of the previous campaign as the former Burnley player Trippier was selected instead and a string of impressive performances also then led to him getting his first England cap in the 2-2 draw against Scotland.
People will argue that the loss of Kyle Walker will be largely felt and that is a fair statement to make but at the same time there is certainly no cause for concern either. Not only that but if Tottenham can use the money that is soon to come their way to flesh out the squad with a couple more faces then they could be set to benefit.
As much as Tottenham would have liked to keep all of their players at the club this summer that quite frankly is an unrealistic proposition and if any of the their key names were to be sacrificed then it is the man set for Manchester City which was always going to be the most likely.
The real key now is to make sure that this departure is the only one and they do not go on to lose Eric Dier to Manchester United also, that in my opinion would be a big blow not just for the club but would also send out a very negative message.
They may have done what is perceived to be good business with the sale of their coveted right back to The Etiahd they now need to make sure that even do any even better piece by keeping other potential suitors at arms length and put the ‘Not For Sale’ sign up at Wembley for the rest of the transfer window.
