‘Frightening’ – Manager praises potential of defender who left Spurs this summer

Sunderland boss Lee Johnson has admitted that the potential which Dennis Cirkin possesses is ‘frightening’.

Cirkin signed his first professional contract with Tottenham in 2019 and was praised by former manager Jose Mourinho, who promoted him to train with the club’s first-team soon after he took over from Mauricio Pochettino.

The 19-year-old was named on the bench for two Europa League fixtures , but never made a first-team appearance for the North Londoners.

He decided to swap Tottenham for Sunderland earlier this summer for an undisclosed fee and penned a three-year deal at the Stadium of Light.

Cirkin has become a first team regular at the Black Cats following his switch with Robinson left excited by how good a player the left-footer could become.

Johnson was asked earlier this week if keeping his key players will be vital in helping the club to achieve promotion, he told The Chronicle: “I get scared on this one because it has happened to me before where we’ve been a victim of our own success,”

“At Bristol City, we sold nearly £100 million worth of players. I can smell assets.

“If you sign people with a good attitude and you have a good set of staff like we have, you can really improve players quickly. I’m already starting to worry about it (selling players), if I’m honest with you, because I’ve seen it before.

“I’d almost rather they had a couple of bad games and sent everybody off the radar!”

He added: “Look at a player like Dennis Cirkin, I don’t even feel he’s had 15 or 20 per cent tapped into his true potential,”

“What we could do with him and what he could do with himself is frightening.

“It’s exciting times.”

SpursWeb Opinion

Cirkin found himself down in the pecking order behind the likes of Sergio Reguilon, Ben Davies and Ryan Sessegnon at Tottenham and should be praised for taking the decision to drop down the footballing pyramid in search of first-team football.

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