After completing two wonderful signings this summer, Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino is now on the brink to sign the third one. The reports are suggesting that the Argentine gaffer is edging closer to completing a deal for Marseille’s 21-year-old attacking winger Georges-Kévin N’Koudou. The deal was supposed to be finalized earlier, but Marseille strictly stated that they won’t be selling N’Koudou if a replacement is not found and now.
Now, besides that, a new name has been added in the potential list of the transfer targets for the Lilly-Whites. According to the reports, the London club is currently engaging themselves in a bidding war with AS Roma and Atletico Madrid to sign Belgian starlet Youri Tielemans.
Further, the same source has stated that Roma are currently leading the queue to sign the 19-year-old and are willing to pay £15.2m to secure the deal.
The manager recently stated that he is looking to sign a couple of new faces, but denied the fact that the team currently needs a centre back:
“Yeah, I expect some signings in the next few weeks. We’ll see what happens,” Pochettino said.
When asked what position Tottenham were looking to strengthen, Pochettino was less willing to give anything away.
“You want to know too much,” he joked.
And after Tottenham lost 1-0 to Atletico Madrid in their second pre-season friendly in Australia, Pochettino said:
“Today we can see that in Cameron Carter-Vickers and Anton Walkes, and the other day with Dominic Ball, we have young and talented players and trust in them.
“I don’t think we need to go into the market to sign another centre-back.”
Now, Youri Tielemans has recently spoken about his future and has revealed that he’s happy at the club, but also admitted that he could be open to make a step forward in his career.
Tielemans said: “There is still a month before the end of the transfer window. I am going to listen to offers, should I receive one. Said that, I am happy and I feel good with this manager.”
Who is Youri Tielemans?
The 19-year-old started his footballing career at the age of five when he joined the Belgian side Anderlecht. Progressing through the youth stages, the midfielder signed his first professional contract with the club aged 16. He made his debut for the senior side in July 2013 against Lokeren and became the 4th youngest player to have played for the club.
Youri, who has been voted as the Young Footballer of the Year in his first two seasons at Anderlecht, became the youngest Belgian (16 years and 148 days) and the third-youngest player ever to play in the Champions League, when he featured for Anderlecht against Olympiakos.
Right at this very moment, the midfielder has more than 100 appearances to his name at Anderlecht, and has also represented his country, Belgium, at every level, namely, U15, U16 and U21 and recently, the 19-year-old got a call-up to the senior squad for Belgium’s Euro 2016 qualifier against Wales.
Style Of Play-
What Tielemans is majorly known for is his versatility, that allows him to play in every position in the midfield (except wings). The player could easily play the role of a defensive midfielder, while, he could control the tempo of the game from the central area, while he can also be deployed on the attacking areas.
Besides that, he is also known for his excellent vision through which, the 19-year-old is capable of delivering some defence splitting passes. Thanks to his physical and technical abilities, he is capable of running around the defenders with ease and that allows his teammates to create space in the wide areas.
He can be called as a distributor of the ball, and thanks to his ability to operate with both the feet, he shows a great precision in his passing. In his initial stages, the midfielder was criticized for his poor judgement while marking his opponents, but he has really improved the trait and has minimized the errors.
No doubt he is a great prospect, but what he needs is a top class experience and Anderlecht certainly cannot provide him that. After all these qualities he possesses, there are some traits that need to be sorted out, especially his ability in the final third. The midfielder can easily give others a run for their money, but when it comes to delivering in the final third he fails to live up.
Besides that, he has this really bad habit of complicating the game by holding on to the ball for a long-long time. Tielemans, who considers Vincent Kompany his role model, is surely a great prospect in the sport, but he still needs to be refined and given the record of Pochettino regarding the youths, Tielemans could really make a mark for the Lilly-Whites.
