Eric Dier has been one of the versatile players at Tottenham and his presence in the squad helped Mauricio Pochettino overcome the lack of Toby Alderweireld. A knee injury forced the Belgian international to miss 11 crucial matches for Spurs this season. During this period, Dier helped out of the team with his versatility by playing in central defence despite being in central midfielder by trade. However, the return of the Belgian has quickly demoted Dier back to the bench for the visit to Old Trafford during the weekend.
Least pleased about the development, the 22-year-old is contemplating a move away from Tottenham in order to get regular first-team football. It is clear that he does not figure in the first-team plans of Mauricio Pochettino. After bringing in Victor Wanyama in the summer, the Kenyan has been preferring the central midfield alongside Mousa Dembele. Since there are no opportunities for Dier to play even in the defence, the player has reportedly told his agents to look at options elsewhere.
Surprisingly, it looks like Dier may not need to move away from London as the reports from the Metro Sport (via Times) have suggested that Chelsea are interested in his services. Antonio Conte has made him one of his transfer targets for the summer, as he looks to strengthen the midfield which may lose players like Cesc Fabregas and Oscar. The lack of regular game time for these two players have made them ideal candidates to leave Stamford Bridge at the earliest.
Even though it would take something extraordinary from Dier in order to break the combination of Nemanja Matic and N’Golo Kante, the 22-year-old may jump at the possibility of experiencing a new challenge once again. The midfielder came from Portuguese outfit Sporting CP in 2014 and since then, he has made incredible progress to establish himself as a number of the first-team squad unlike players like Tom Carroll, who are quite far away from getting any game time whatsoever.
Dier has featured in 13 league matches playing almost 1000 minutes in the process. He has also been a regular in the Champions League team after featuring in more than 400 minutes over five matches.
The Tottenham midfielder is also thought to be concerned at the prospect of retaining his status in the England national team squad. After making his debut for England in 2015, Dier has gone on to feature in 14 appearances. The progress that he had on an international scale is quite surprising. In order to sustain this progress, Dier needs to be playing regularly.
Chelsea are monitoring the situation surrounding the player, who has a contract with the club until the summer of 2021. The lack of home-grown talent in the Chelsea squad is an area of concern and Dier could be a perfect signing to solve the issue.
