Noel Whelan claims selling defender might come back to bite Spurs

Former Coventry City defender Noel Whelan has warned Tottenham that they might be making a huge blunder if they decide to sell Kyle Walker-Peters this month.

The young full-back started the first few games of the season but has failed to push Serge Aurier for a place in the side since then.

Walker-Peters has featured just once under Jose Mourinho and it has been claimed that the defender has told the Spurs head coach that he would like to leave the club (Daily Mirror – January 15, page 49).

Football Insider reported earlier that both Crystal Palace and Southampton are hoping to sign the 22-year-old permanently this month.

In fact, Roy Hodgson confirmed earlier this week that Palace were optimistic of landing Walker-Peters (Football.London) and Mourinho refused to deny the reports when he was quizzed about the full-back joining the Eagles (Football.London).

However, Whelan believes that the Spurs academy graduate has the potential to develop into a great player and claimed that the Lilywhites could come to regret selling him in the years to come.

Speaking to Football Insider, Whelan said, “He’s a young lad and if he is available, he needs to go. He’s not being looked at by Jose Mourinho as somebody he’s going to use, the player’s got to go.

“You’ll get that feeling from a manager, hopefully, they’ll have had that talk and maybe playing it clear, giving his agent a chance to look for clubs for this young man. He’s a player who could become really, really good in the Premier League.

“There’s been lots of times where clubs have let players go and it’s come back to bite them; (Romelu) Lukaku, (Kevin) De Bruyne, all these players now. There’s every chance that these players, they’ll look back in two, three years time and say, ‘Yeah, we’ve let one go there’.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I would have been against letting Walker-Peters leave if you had asked me last summer as I still believed he was capable of making the right-back slot his own. However, he has not looked defensively up to the mark in the chances that have come his way and at 22 years of age, he needs to be playing regularly. So, it might be time for us to move the youngster on.

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