When Tottenham swooped to sign Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski on transfer deadline day in January, there were questions asked over why they had acquired players deemed dispensable by Juventus.
Bentancur’s form had dipped following Massimiliano Allegri’s return as manager, while Kulusevski was limited to five Serie A starts in the first half of 2021-22. The Old Lady had chewed them up and spat them out; Juventus supporters mocked their Tottenham counterparts for taking on a pair of rejects.
As it transpired, Bentancur and Kulusevski were transformational recruits for Antonio Conte and Spurs, playing pivotal roles as the club sealed a long-awaited and much-needed return to the Champions League. Both have quickly become terrace favourites: “He’s the reason, we’ll be playing on Wednesdays next season” sang Spurs fans – to the tune of Oasis’ She’s The Reason – to Bentancur inside a sun-soaked Carrow Road in May.
The reason for taking this short trip down memory lane is that once again Spurs are closing in on the signing of a player that one of European football’s superpowers is desperate to get rid of with Clement Lenglet set to join on a season-long loan deal from Barcelona.
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Lenglet is a 27-year-old centre-back who has amassed 160 appearances for Barca, been capped 15 times by France at a time when they have had unparalleled depth in that position, and joins without Spurs having an obligation to buy him next summer. And yet judging by the some of the reaction to his imminent arrival on Twitter, you’d think that Spurs have given a competition winner a place in next season’s squad.
Part of the reason for such indifference is that Lenglet patently wasn’t one of Fabio Paratici’s top targets for the left-sided centre-back role. Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni and Josko Gvardiol of RB Leipzig were widely reported to be top of the list, while Nico Schlotterbeck might have been an option had he not joined Borussia Dortmund from Freiburg.
Another is that Lenglet will forever be associated with some of the most calamitous results in Barcelona’s recent history – Liverpool 4-0 Barcelona in 2019, Barcelona 2-8 Bayern Munich in 2020 and Barcelona 1-4 PSG in 2021 – and was hooked at half-time in France’s eventual last-16 defeat against Switzerland at the Euros last summer.
There is of course, no guarantee that Lenglet will succeed as Bentancur and Kulusevski have. He plays in a completely different position for starters and will have to quickly grow accustomed to the nuances of a three-man defensive system having generally been used as part of a four at his former clubs and France.
But the fact that he struggled at Barcelona does not mean that he is necessarily a poor player. Invariably, when a club of Barcelona’s stature suffers a humiliating defeat, a large chunk of blame will be apportioned to those at the back: but the lack of pressing from the front players was just as, if not more, culpable to those defeats than any defensive errors.
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And if ever a coach can help Lenglet rediscover the form that made Barcelona interested in the first place, it is surely Conte. Eric Dier and Ben Davies played the best football of their Spurs careers under the Italian last season, Bentancur and Kulusevski flourished and to a man, the squad upped their performance and fitness levels after his appointment last November.
Escaping the glare of a huge club could be just what Lenglet needs and signing another player with a point to prove could benefit Spurs yet again.
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