Tottenham are considering a move for Sheffield United defender Jack O’Connell, according to the Daily Star.
O’Connell has played for Sheffield United since they were in League One and has helped Chris Wilder’s side climb the divisions to the Premier League. The 25-year-old has been a regular so far this season, functioning as one of the Blades’ unorthodox overlapping centre-backs – often getting further forward than the team’s full-backs.
The Star claims Spurs are eyeing O’Connell as a long-term replacement for Jan Vertonghen, who is out of contract at the end of the season and has looked ropey for the most part this term.
O’Connell has plenty of experience while also having many more years ahead of him, making him an ideal candidate if deemed good enough to play for Tottenham. He has featured in all 23 of Sheffield United’s league games this season, so he is obviously trusted by Wilder.
The Yorkshire side currently sit two points and one place above Spurs in the table having conceded nine goals fewer than the Londoners, so it makes sense that Jose Mourinho might look at bringing in one of their most influential defenders.
Massive mistake to let superman go. Just like Dembele, who our fans cheered out the door before his time, Jan is virtually irreplaceable in our budget. People are talking nonsense saying Jans legs have gone or he’s lost his pace. Jan never had pace, it was football IQ, his reading of the game, his brilliant timing of challenges, his skill on the ball, his calm focus against opposition, those attributes are what make jan an outstanding centre back. It was Pochettino who said less than a year ago that jan would be good until 40, and I agree with that because his style of defending and lack of his injuries mean that serious injury aside he should retain all the attributes that make him top drawer.
When a defence is bad it’s very easy to blame the keeper or the centre backs, but that is foolish when you look at the situation around our 2 GREAT centre backs. Walker left and wasn’t replaced by a decent right back, trippier wasn’t replaced at all. Dembele was irreplaceable as a ball holding 90% pass accuracy every game defensive box to box and Wanyama lost his magic years ago, Dier has went backwards since his second season with us and is exposed without Dembele. Then rose has lost form, Davies has been injured and Sessegnon isn’t yet relied upon for fullback role. Jose builds his teams from the back and would be mad to not keep Toby and jan together, they are arguably the best centre back pairing in the league, if we can sort fullback and midfield out. Also Lloris and Gazzaniga are a top keeper/back up situation…
The goalkeeper and two centre backs aren’t supposed to be the first, second and third line of defence. Toby and jan are experts at mopping up whatever gets past two good fullbacks and a solid midfield, but let’s be serious, our midfield seems almost on par defensively with Bentaleb and mason, but without two in form fullbacks that walker and rose were when bentaleb and mason were our midfield. NDombele was supposed to be our Dembele replacement and for sure he’s a talent, but his injury record has been shocking so far, as has the defensive side of his game, hopefully the Gedson kid can cover this role well and Tanganga and Davies can become solid fullback options, Davies lacks pace but Sessegnon with some coaching has pace to burn.
When Poch came in, his remit in the first season was to get spurs scoring goals, whilst we had the 3rd worst defence in the league that first season, then Toby came in next to Jan, walker and rose, Dembele became our box to box next to Dier (then Wanyama 3rd season) and we had the best defence in the prem for 2 consecutive seasons before Poch broke it up by freezing Toby out for nearly a full season and selling Dembele after only a couple of games the next season. Jose builds his teams from the back, and it must be said that our defence seems to be improving now, even if our attack and finishing is still a glaring worry. Lo Celso, Lamela and Dele can probably on paper take up the creative hole left by Eriksen leaving but I don’t have confidence in them staying fit over gruelling seasons.
There are several facts as regard my Spurs team, on transfers, the so called mid field, is lightweight,do lots of fancy stuff against lower opposition, but fail against top sides. The Kane problem is a created problem, what Spurs are saying to a player in for Harry is no matter how well you plag, how manuals you score your out when he s back, we have needed a player who would not automatically be dropped. Top Winning teams have goals coming from mid field, I ‘ve watched Spurs for over 50 years, fighting spirit and passion is not there, there has nt been a natural leader, driving the team on, Mackay,Mullery,Perryman,Roberts and Mabbut pushed , Gazza fought like a tiger, I m yet to see a mid fielder like him. Many of the players bought in by Poch, were at best average. Lastly, what we should remember, if a player does nt want to be at Spurs the quicker their home the better, a lot of the players that were not committed to Spurs over the last 18 months of so, would have, under Fergusson or Clough ,been gone. Jose had a very difficult job, dealing with inconsistent players, I m sure if he were able,quite a few players would be moved on. I love the new ground, I ‘ve always supported Spurs,met Perryman a few weeks ago, at Chelsea game, Chelsea fans were signing, nice ground shame about the team, although annoying to listen to, can we argue. Spurs have a great set of fans, we deserve a great team.
Is he available for free only way DL will be buying him.
Unfortunately we, the long suffering supporters, are victims of an extremely (football) incompetent
management team (ENIC) who are more interested in stadium income from as many sources as possible rather than concentrating on building a strong team. We buy Gedson Fernandez when Bruno
Fernandez is the guy we really need. This cheapskate approach has ruined our team. No matter who
the manager is NO ONE can work miracles forever with best before and under talented players.
Dilly dallying around over getting a striker when the check book should be out and buying the best
available. This is the second season Harry Kane ha suffered a bad injury. He needs some competition
For his spot, one that would allow us to rest him from time to time without effecting overall
Team performance. Obviously not going to happen. We are now reduced to barely a mid level team
After all the hard work Pochettino put in. Next thing Levy will find is supporters deserting in droves and a half empty stadium which will greatly reduce the bottom line he is so fixated on
This stupid penny pinching is beginning to come home to roost. To be competitive in the zPremie you
need to keep upgrading. You get what you pay for . Buy lower quality players you will pay the price.
We certainly need some proven class talent back in defence plus at least a striker.