Are Ryan Sessegnon And Matthijs De Ligt In Line To Replace Danny Rose And Toby Alderweireld At Tottenham Hotspur?

Are Ryan Sessegnon And Matthijs De Ligt In Line To Replace Danny Rose And Toby Alderweireld At Tottenham Hotspur?
10:45, 12 Apr 2018

“As a Tottenham player, I’d love to see more signings. I am not saying buy 10 players, I’d love to see two or three - and not players you have to Google and say, ‘Who’s that?’ I mean well-known players.” Danny Rose picked a hell of time to voice his concern about Tottenham’s lack of summer transfer activity. In the days leading up to the start of the Premier League season, the left-back went on record to criticise the club’s transfer policy.

Spurs, of course, would go on to bring in new faces before the deadline, acquiring Serge Aurier, Davinson Sanchez and Fernando Llorente, to name three, and made their move in January to bring in Lucas Moura, yet it hasn’t been enough for the north London side to launch a sustained title pursuit. While Spurs aren’t mathematically out of the title race - they’re 17 points behind Manchester City with six games to play - the lack of silverware will play on the minds of their more experienced players.

Rose will see former teammate Kyle Walker closing in on Premier League glory with City and will want similar. The problem for the left-back, though, is that his comments were ill-timed, for both player and club. At the time, Rose hadn’t played since January and despite a return to fitness, is struggling to usurp Ben Davies as the club’s first choice in his position. He isn’t the only experienced Spurs man who’ll be seeing Walker starting for the Premier League champions elect and be hoping for similar, with Toby Alderweireld another linked with a move away from Mauricio Pochettino’s side.

The Belgian centre-back hasn’t featured for Spurs since playing the full 90 minutes in the 2-2 draw with Rochdale in the FA Cup, while he hasn’t played a Premier League minute since the 1-0 loss to Manchester United back in October. Both are rumoured targets for title-chasing outfits across the continent and it presents an interesting conundrum for Spurs. They’re exceeding expectations considering the level of spending compared to their rivals, yet without sufficient investment to challenge for top honours, Spurs’ key men will be linked with big money moves away from the capital.

With time running out on their respective careers, one can’t blame Rose and Alderweireld for hoping to secure moves away in pursuit of winners’ medals, even if Spurs continue to go from strength to strength. What’s crucial is that they replace the potentially departing pair with sufficient personnel. Buying young and developing has been a staple for Spurs in the past and it could well be they adopt a similar recruitment policy once more to strengthen.

Ryan Sessegnon and Matthijs De Ligt are widely considered two of the hottest young prospects in Europe. Sessegnon has been lighting up the Championship and has scored one fewer goal himself (14) than every other teenager in the league combined (15) this season. His flying form down the Fulham left has seen him linked with a host of big name Premier League sides, with Spurs supposedly leading the race for his services. “I think that a deal has been done for Ryan as teams have been in for him. It's a Premier League side with strong rumours of Tottenham,” former Fulham man Leroy Rosenior said back in February.

De Ligt, meanwhile, has been the subject of interest from Barcelona and for good reason. He’s made more accurate passes (1654) than any other teenager in the Eredivisie this season with the Dutch centre-back a perfect fit for both the La Liga leaders and Spurs. Should the latter land the Dutchman’s services, he’ll follow a prestigious line of players making the trek from Amsterdam to London, with Jan Vertonghen, Christian Eriksen, Davinson Sanchez and Alderweireld, via Madrid and Southampton, all ending up at Spurs following Ajax departures.

That being said, the young duo are rough around the edges and would take time to get up to speed with the demands of both a new league and a manager who expects 100% from his players. If Spurs sell Rose and Alderweireld and replace them with Sessegnon and De Ligt, then they’ll be downgrading from the options in their squad, but in time, the pair have the means to ease their departures. Sessegnon boasts the attacking nous to successfully replicate Rose at his peak under Pochettino and there’s a huge scope for improvement.

De Ligt is considered one of the best up and coming centre-backs and his composure on the ball and ability to play out from the back would suit a Spurs side that averages the second most possession (58.8%) in the Premier League this season. If Pochettino can tap into their immense potential, then the decision to possibly sell Rose and Alderweireld this summer, while initially castigated, could prove a blessing in disguise given both Spurs’ form without the pair and their respective injury issues. Replacing them with Sessegnon and De Ligt would certainly ease concerns and provide a renewed sense of optimism with supporters safe in the knowledge that a couple of seemingly bad apples have been removed from the apple cart.

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