The likes of Neymar and Paul Pogba might be grabbing most of the transfer related headlines this summer, but it is Christian Eriksen who could provide the most intriguing narrative of the window.
Eriksen has a year remaining of his contract at Spurs. During his recent spell on international duty with Denmark, he spoke of his desire to experience a new challenge.
“I have the wildest and deepest respect for everything that has happened in Tottenham. But I have also said that I would like to try something new,” he told Ekstrbladet.
“I hope there will be a clarification during the summer. In football you do not know when a clarification comes. Everyone wants it best if it happens as soon as possible, but in football takes things time.
“It depends on Daniel Levy and another club has to come. Or I have to sit down at the table and negotiate a new contract.”
Real Madrid went into the transfer window as the hot favourites to land Eriksen, but Zinedine Zidane is said to prefer that the club sign Pogba this summer. That sets up an interesting transfer triangle, as Eriksen would seem to be a natural replacement for Pogba, if he were to move to the Bernabeu.
Yet why would Eriksen want to leave Spurs for Manchester United? Historically United are a bigger club, but Tottenham now have the superior team. Spurs are a far more settled and better run unit, who can provide Champions League football. United would probably offer more money to Eriksen, but these days the club are no slouches in this regard, with Harry Kane earning £200,000-a-week.
It remains to be seen as to whether Madrid will be able to prise Pogba from United, anyway. It is likely to be a hugely expensive and complicated deal, with only a few weeks of the transfer window remaining. Perhaps then, Pogba will stay and that will set up the question as to whether Real decide to go for Eriksen, or if they have a different Plan B in mind.
Real Madrid are still the slight favourites to be Eriksen’s club once the transfer window closes at odds of 5/6, but the chances of him staying in London have narrowed to 5/4. If you’re looking to have a wager on Eriksen’s future, Freebets UK have a selection of free bets available.
Another element to the tale is Tottenham’s position and whether Eriksen would be prepared to run down his contract. As a prudent club, you would not expect them to let Eriksen enter the last year of his contract, but they may not have much choice if no one makes a suitable bid and the Dane refuses to commit to a proposed deal that is rumoured to bring his wages in line with Kane’s.
In his quotes regarding the future, Eriksen spoke about signing a new contract if no club came in for him. That would be an admirably loyal thing to do, if it were to happen. Because if Eriksen’s ambition is to play for the likes of Real Madrid or Barcelona, running down his contract would make more sense. They might not want to pay millions for him this summer, but surely one of Europe’s super clubs would be willing to take him for free in a year.
If he was to deliberately do that then we should drop him from the first team squad as he would never give 100% to the team for any match and would be a waste of a place. He already has done that during the last season so drop him to the under 23
If he wants to go and if the reports are to be believed he had packed up his home before the champions league final then go now Q (why did we play him as he did not give us 100%) Mora would have died for us to compeat with Liverpool.
Happy to do a player + cash deal to get the transfere done so we can move on and not be distrated with a player who dose not want to be a spurs player anymore