Opinion: Three centre-backs Tottenham should sign this summer

Tottenham’s defence has been disastrous this season, partly as a result of Jan Vertongen’s departure last year.

Aiming to fill the void he left, Spurs spent £11M on Joe Rodon. This likely wasn’t seen as an immediate replacement but he was intended to start more over time.

At the start of the 2020/21 Premier League season, to most fans’ surprise, Eric Dier was playing tremendously and helped Tottenham to sustain their top spot for a short while.

However, Dier has been atrocious for the rest of this season, being at fault for goal after goal. Mourinho wouldn’t stop playing Dier even when he was consistently awful, which led to a growing distaste for the Englishman from fans.

Now onto Davinson Sanchez. Given, he’s still young at 24, Sanchez isn’t up to Tottenham standard. Alike Dier, he has plenty of terrible performances with a few decent ones every so often.

The two youngest centre-backs capable of playing for Tottenham are Japhet Tanganga and Joe Rodon. Most of the time Rodon plays he has been very good defensively and decent in the air.

Tanganga rarely got played in his favoured position, centre back, and was often played at right back. Personally, I think we should give Tanganga some chances and Rodon should play ahead of Dier and Sanchez.

The only centre back alongside Vertonghen who has been reliable and consistent since he arrived is Toby Alderweireld. He was paired with Jan to create a formidable centre-half duo for the six years they were together.

The Belgium international has made 260 appearances for Tottenham so far, with perhaps more to come. But the negative with Alderweireld is that he’s 32-years-old meaning there is not much room for improvement.

So, with one centre back getting old in the football world, two inconsistent and two not trusted enough, it’s a necessity that Spurs buy a new centre half this summer.

Here are some of the best looking options for Tottenham:

Nikola Milenković

As well as Machester United, Everton and West Ham, Tottenham are also among the clubs interested in signing Milenkovic (Calciomercato).

Milenkovic is extremely experienced for only being 23-years-old. He has already made 130 appearances for Florentina and 28 appearances for Serbia.

One of his main attributes is that he’s 6 ft 5 inches tall, making him great aerially. You may be thinking this means he’s slow? But the answer to that is no. He is quite fast for a centre back, being able to play as a right-back if necessary.

Valued at around 25.20m, Milenkovic is definitely in Spurs’ budget.

Joachim Andersen

Andersen has impressed at Fulham since arriving there from Lyon on loan. There may be a battle for Andersen with Manchester United also said to be interested in him (Express).

After being Lyon’s record transfer fee in 2019, Andersen’s price has continued to drop over the last two years. He was bought for €30M from Sampdoria and is now priced at somewhere near £13.50M.

With this being said, now he’s started to succeed at Fulham, his price is beginning to rise again.

Matthias Ginter

Ginter has been applying his trade in Germany for his whole career. While playing for Borussia Mönchengladbach over the last three years he has looked solid.

According to Bild, Ginter is linked with Spurs and Liverpool. He is reportedly interested in Tottenham and the Lillywhites have even made an offer for him.

Ginter is valued somewhere in the region of £31.50M. This makes him the most expensive out of the centre-backs mentioned.

Overview

Looking at the three options I’ve listed, I believe that Andersen would be the best choice. First of all, he value is significantly cheaper. With this extra money, Tottenham could look towards other areas that need to be improved.

As well as the price, the Dane has already spent time in the most challenging league in the world.

Some players may perform excellently in other leagues but when they get to the Premier League they don’t live up to expectations. We know this won’t be the case with Andersen.

I think if Andersen is unavailable for Tottenham, the next best thing to do is purchase Milenkovic. He is also young and has so much experience for his age. If he doesn’t fulfil what we want at Spurs there will definitely be a good resell value.

However, even if Tottenham don’t buy any of these centre-halves there are still plenty of other options. Without a shadow of a doubt, whoever it may be, Spurs will have to acquire at least one centre-back this summer.

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