Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Tottenham have completed the signing of Burnley right-back Kieran Trippier on a five-year-deal.
The 24-year-old moves to Spurs for an undisclosed fee from the Clarets, who he joined in 2012.
The former Manchester City trainee made 185 appearances for Burnley, and started every Premier League game last season.
“When I first heard that the club was interested I didn’t have to think twice,” Trippier said.
“It’s such a big club and now I just can’t wait to get started and show everyone what I can do.”
Trippier becomes Mauricio Pochettino’s second signing of the summer after Spurs signed Cologne defender Kevin Wimmer for an undisclosed fee on a five-year deal .
Trippier added: “I’ll take every opportunity I get with both hands and hopefully play my part for everyone at the club.
“Whenever I get a chance, I want to do well for the other players, the staff and, of course, the fans.”
Trippier did not make a first-team appearance for Manchester City, and had a loan spell at Barnsley before moving to Turf Moor, initially on loan.
EDITOR’S NOTE: With the signing of Tripper, Tottenham have done their second piece of business this Summer. An addition to the Right Back ranks with the signing of Trippier could intimate one of two things.
Firstly Kyle Walker will now have competition and back up for the Right Back position on the teamsheet, with Walker struggling to rid nagging injuries that curtailed last season this could also mean Trippier will be playing as many if not more matches than the England International Walker.
Secondly in signing Trippier, I would assume that DeAndre Yedlin will be farmed out on loan to a Premier League club for a season to truly get him up to scratch with the English game, rumour has it that Norwich City will be the destination for Yedlin. It will be interesting to see how he peforms for the Canaries if they move does come off but ultimately only delays the issue of being over subscribed in the right back slot for another season. It will be interesting who will be filling this slot at the start of the 2016/17 season.
So with the defensive additions nearly all done (bar hopefully one actual quality centre back) we now need to focus on adding to the midfield and forward departments. We always seem to be perennially linked with Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlein but then again so do Arsenal and unfortunately the lure of Champions League Football is going to be too much for us and we’ll probably get pipped to his signature. On the other hand we have been linked with another French Midfielder in PSG’s Yohan Cabaye, I think if we could get him on board this would be a quality signing and would certainly improve the Centre Midfield ranks. The 29 year old has said he wants to leave Paris in search of First Team Football and in all honestly we should definitely be beating West Ham and Crystal Palace for his signature.
Going further forward we have been linked with Mohamed Salah of Chelsea. Two question spring to mind:
a) Would Chelsea be willing to sell to us
b) Would it be an improvement on what we’ve already got
The answers for this are in my opinion:
a) Although we’re not considered direct title rivals there is still a bit of underlying bad blood after their poaching of Frank Arnesen and our refusal to sell them Luka Modric, therefore we are not on the best of business terms and this could be a major stumbling block for any potential deal.
b) I think the Egyptian would certainly be an improvement on what we have in the wide forward roles and if he was to come in we would then be more than likely to say goodbye to Andros Townsend. I don’t have it in for Andros Townsend I just think he’s one player that we can certainly improve on. But this is all conjecture as due to point a) I can’t really see this one getting off the ground.
We’ve also been linked with an Argentinian based in Italy so the rumour mill is going overdrive at the moment, it certainly won’t be Carlos Tevez but who it could well possibly be is Rodrigo Palacio of Inter Milan. With him being 33 years old I can’t say it’s a move that particularly excites me but if does bolster the Striker ranks and gives us an extra option then that’s a positive I suppose, I just hope he’s not the only striker that joins the club in the summer.
