Frank McAvennie has confidently asserted that Antonio Conte will want to prioritise signing a new central defender when the transfer window opens in January.
Even though there is still a month and a half left to go until the transfer window reopens, the rumour mill regarding Tottenham’s transfer targets has gone into hyperdrive since Conte’s arrival at the club two weeks ago.
Last week, Fabrizio Romano backed the North London club to potentially go after a centre-forward, a midfielder and a centre-back in January.
Most of the central defenders that Spurs have been linked with over recent weeks have been from the Serie A, with the likes of Stefan De Vrij, Milan Skriniar, and Alessio Romagnoli thought to be Conte’s radar.
However, McAvennie has suggested that Tottenham could look closer to home towards a player like Burnley’s James Tarkowski, who would come with extensive Premier League experience and instantly improve their backline.
The former West Ham striker told Football Insider: “A defender like Tarkowski, he is first through the door.
“Conte will have known that going in. He’s not blind. He will have been keeping an eye on the scores and seen Tottenham shipping too many goals.
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“I could go on until the cows come home about how bad that defence is. They have a world-class attack in Kane and Son, you can’t deny that.
“They then have a decent enough midfield and a poor defence. It just makes sense to get someone in there. Tarkowski, would he do it? He would be an improvement for sure.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Conte might well want to prioritise strengthening at centre-back in January but some of the punditry regarding Tottenham’s defensive issues is ridiculously uninformed.
To simply suggest that Tottenham’s defensive issues under Mourinho and Nuno were down to bad defenders, is lazy punditry. It had as much to do with the team’s set-up as it was about errors at the back.
Romero certainly seems to be settling down very well in the Premier League while Dier is nowhere near as bad as people think he is. I do not think Spurs need wholesale changes at the back to become more defensively solid.
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