Mousa Dembele completed a move to Chinese Super League side Guangzhou R&F for a reported fee of £11 million a few days ago. Dembele had not featured for Spurs since picking up an ankle injury in the 3-2 win at Wolves at the start of November.
The Belgian’s contract was due to run out at the end of the season and there were doubts if the 31-year-old’s body was capable of dealing with the physical demands of Premier League football. So the deal suited all three parties with Dembele securing a lucrative contract and Spurs getting £11 million for a player who would have gone for free in the summer.
Former Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder Jamie Redknapp, however, reckons Spurs made a huge mistake by allowing Dembele to leave. Redknapp said the powerful midfielder would have come in handy, especially given the current injury crisis at the club.
Speaking to Sky Sports he said: “In a way, I have no sympathy for Spurs because you’ve just sold one of the best midfield players in the league. When you talk to the Tottenham players about Mousa Dembele, everybody says he is unbelievable.”
“He hasn’t played as many games as you’d like but now, how much could you do with him? Why have you left yourselves so short?”
The pundit said Spurs will have only themselves to blame if they are to get knocked out of cup competitions or find themselves falling outside the top four.
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He added: “If Tottenham were out of the Champions League and out of the FA Cup, I might get it but you cannot make me understand that Dembele move. Financially, it might be good, but not for the team.”
“I just think it [selling Dembele] is a big mistake because you’ve got such a good player. If he goes for a free at the end of the season, that’s fair enough, but right now, you need bodies and when you’ve got someone as good as him, he might not be able to play two games a week but you’re going to need him on Thursday [against Chelsea].”
“You’ve got Olivier Skipp, who is a great young player, but you need your experienced heads at the moment. It’s an important time for Tottenham. There’s no doubt that they are going to be working hard behind the scenes now to get some players in. There will be players available to loan or buy but you’ve got to be clever in the market because it’s not in Daniel Levy’s make-up to want to get someone who charges too much for a player – he’d rather not do it.”
“But now it is a case of needs must because, although it was such a big three points, you don’t want to slip out of that top four. You’ve got so many big games coming up and you need to try and find some players.”
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