Opinion: Why signing Miralem Pjanic would be a huge risk for Spurs

The Daily Express have reported that Miralem Pjanic’s short stint at the Camp Nou could soon be coming to an end (Mundo Deportivo via Sport Witness) and that Tottenham could compete for his signature thanks to newly appointed Fabio Paritici (AS via Sport Witness).

The two shared several years together at Juventus and clearly the Bosnian midfielder left a lasting impression on the Italian.

Pjanic was signed from Roma for a fee of £25.4m and he scored 22 goals and provided 41 assists over the course of 178 games for the Old Lady (Transfermarkt), which is highly impressive as a central midfielder.

It is fair to say that Pjanic is a player of immense quality, however, in the last year, his form has dropped considerably, specifically after he joined La Liga giants, Barcelona.

In 2020/21, he made 19 league appearances, only six of which were starts and even worse, he made no goal contributions in that time (Transfermarkt).

This drop in form could be for a number of reasons. It can be very hard to adjust to a different country and language, etc. However, in my opinion, it simply is not worth the risk involved with signing this player.

Here is why…

Tottenham already have a player in a very similar mould to Pjanic, that is Giovani Lo Celso.

Lo Celso signed in 2019 on an initial loan from Real Betis, and later Spurs took up the option to make the move permanent. At the time it seemed like a no-brainer, the Argentine was in remarkable form, constantly pulling the strings from midfield and driving the team forward.

The following season was not quite as successful, he missed a grand total of 27 games for Tottenham through injury in 2020/21 (Transfermarkt), and this severely affected his performances once he returned.

He struggled to find any sort of form but was lucky enough to make the cut for Argentina’s Copa America squad this summer.

Nonetheless, despite the recent poor form Lo Celso has shown in a Spurs shirt, I do not believe it justifies signing a player so similar, particularly for the huge wages that Pjanic would likely expect.

Regardless of whether we sign Pjanic or not, it is evident that another creative player needs to make the step up if Tottenham are to mount a top four challenge next season.

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