Spurs plot move to sign an exciting “future Ballon d’Or winner”

Tottenham Hotspur’s season has been a bit of a disaster this year, but there are reasons to be hopeful for the future.

Daniel Levy and Co may not have bought enough ready-made players for Ange Postecoglou over the summer, but they did sign a number of up-and-coming prospects.

The likes of Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall and their very own Mikey Moore look like they could develop into sensational players together at Spurs.

Fortunately, recent reports have now linked a slightly older but still developing talent for a move to the club this month, a tremendously exciting attacker who shares a lot of similarities with Dele Alli.

Tottenham target incredible phenom

According to a recent report from Caught Offside, Tottenham are one of multiple clubs ‘monitoring Rayan Cherki’s situation at Lyon.’

Alongside the Lilywhites, the report has revealed that Manchester United, Liverpool, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayer Leverkusen and Atalanta are all interested in the sensational French talent. Spurs are perhaps one of the most interested parties with GIVEMESPORT further reporting that they are ‘tempted’ to make an offer to get him out of France.

However, while the competition could be a challenge for Spurs to overcome, the price might not be as, according to the story, the Ligue 1 side are only after about €22m for the 21-year-old, which is about £18m and has been described as an “absolute bargain” by “many executives,” per Sky Sports Germany reporter Florian Plettenberg.

It looks like it could be an incredibly complicated deal to get over the line given the amount of competition, but with how unbelievably talented Cherki is, it’s a deal Spurs must fight for, especially as there are some similarities between him and Dele.

How Cherki compares to Dele and why Spurs should sign him

Okay, so before we go into some of the reasons why Spurs should be doing all they can to sign Cherki this month, let’s examine some of the ways in which he’s similar to the player Dele was in his pomp.

The first and most significant is that, like the former England star was when he was a youngster, the Lyon ace has been winning rave reviews for his sublime skills for years now.

For example, just a couple of years ago, The Athletic’s Alex Barker described the Frenchman as “a future Ballon d’Or winner,” while talent scout Jacek Kulig dubbed him a “world-class talent.”

On top of that, Ted Knutson, the founder of Statsbomb, described the Lyon phenom as “a masterful dribbler and string-puller” just a couple of weeks ago, and while Dele wasn’t necessarily the exact same type of player, he too won a mountain of plaudits when he was coming through.

For example, even as his powers started to fade in 2019, then-Spurs boss José Mourinho answered that “he can do anything he wants” to a reporter’s question on his chances of winning the Ballon d’Or in the future.

Moreover, when he was scoring for fun and running games as a youngster, the Milton Keynes-born superstar was included among the likes of Kevin De Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Neymar Jr and others in a BBC article about players who could become contenders for the prestigious award once Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo stopped winning it.

With all that said, another significant indicator the Lilywhites should be doing all they can to sign the Pusignan-born gem this month is his outrageous underlying numbers.

According to FBref, which compares players in similar positions in Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and the Europa League, the 21-year-old sits in the top 1% of attacking midfielders and wingers for expected assisted goals, shot-creating actions, progressive passes and successful take-ons, the top 2% for actual assists, the top 4% for attempted passes, the top 7% for touches in the opposition’s penalty area and more, all per 90.

Ultimately, if Spurs are looking to build a team of young talents who can grow together and challenge for major honours a few years from now, then we aren’t sure there are many better options on the market than Cherki.

Therefore, Levy and Co should do all they can to bring him to N17 as soon as possible, as they would have another Dele-level talent on their hands for a relatively small fee.