All things considered, Tottenham Hotspur enjoyed a relatively successful campaign last season.
In his first year with the club, Ange Postecoglou helped to steady the ship and lead them back into European football, although they did slip out of the Champions League places in the final few game weeks.
This season, the Australian has to take the team back into the top four, but to do that, he’ll need Daniel Levy and Co to do their jobs and bring in the right reinforcements this summer.
Ange Postecoglou and Daniel Levy.
Fortunately, even after splashing £65m on Dominic Solanke, that appears to be happening, as the latest star touted for a move to N17 would be an incredible addition to the midfield and a perfect upgrade to Yves Bissouma.
Tottenham Hotspur transfer news
According to a recent report from Italy, Tottenham are now interested in signing Juventus midfielder Manuel Locatelli.
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In fact, the report claims that the North Londoners are now ‘ready to offer 24 million plus bonuses to convince Juve to sell the player’, which converts to around £21m.
The good news for the Lilywhites is that the report also reveals that the Old Lady would be willing to let the player leave for ‘a good offer,’ and the one Levy and Co are said to be preparing would fit that criteria.
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It’s not an insignificant amount of money, but given how well Locatelli can play, it could prove value for money in the long run, and he’d be a great Bissouma upgrade.
How Locatelli compares to Bissouma
So, the first thing to clear up is that while Locatelli is more than capable of playing as the team’s eight – making 76 appearances in central midfield – he has spent the vast majority of his career playing as a defensive midfielder, making 228 appearances in the position across his time with Juventus, Sassuolo and AC Milan.
Manuel Locatelli celebrates for Juventus
This would mean one of his likely competitors at Tottenham would be Bissouma, so how do the pair stack up to one another over the last couple of campaigns?
Well, when it comes to their raw output, there is not much of a comparison at all, as in his 89 appearances for the Old Lady since the start of 22/23, the Italian ace has scored one goal and provided eight assists, meaning he has averaged a goal involvement every 9.88 games.
In comparison, the Spurs star has failed to score a single goal or provide even one assist in his 56 games in the same period, which is a poor return even for a six.
Okay, so while the former Sassuolo star clearly offers far more of a goal threat than the Malian international, does he also come out miles ahead when we compare their underlying numbers?
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The good news for the former Brighton & Hove Albion ace is that it isn’t entirely as one-sided here, but the bad news is that he is still second best to the Lecco-born “dominator”, as dubbed by talent scout Jacek Kulig.
For example, the Euro 2020 winner comes out on top in the majority of relevant metrics, including non-penalty expected goals plus assists, actual non-penalty goals plus assists, progressive passes received, shots on target, key passes, passes and crosses into the penalty area and shot and goals-creating actions, all per 90.
