Sky Sports reporter Michael Bridge has questioned why Tottenham Hotspur did not look to organise a swap deal to bring Bruno Guimaraes to the club last month.
The midfielder swapped Lyon for Newcastle United in a £40million deal (Sky Sports) while the French side decided to end Tanguy Ndombele’s misery at Tottenham by bringing him back to Ligue 1 for the remainder of the campaign along with the option to make the deal permanent in the summer for £54 million.
Guimaraes, a Brazilian international had scored three goals and provided eight assists in 71 outings for Lyon prior to his switch to Tyneside (transfermarkt).
Bridge was left to wonder why Tottenham had not attempted to bring Guimaraes to north London in a swap deal for the out of favour Ndombele.
Ndombele made his first appearance for Lyon on Saturday following his return to the club when he came off the bench in the second half during their 2-0 defeat at Monaco.
Bridge told GiveMeSport: “I think he’s such a good player. I mean if Tanguy Ndombele is going to Lyon, why couldn’t Spurs have swapped? That’s a real blow for me, I really rate this player.”
Tottenham instead made two signings on deadline day with the arrival of Juventus pair Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur.
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Whether it was a case of Fabio Paratici and Antonio Conte not fancying Guimaraes or whether it was simply a case of Lyon enquiring after Ndombele’s talks with PSG had collapsed will remain a mystery, however, Newcastle have got themselves a quality player.
Spurs fans cannot feel too hard done by with the encouraging cameo that Bentancur showed on Saturday night.
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