Fernando Llorente hasn’t played a lot of minutes for Tottenham since making his move from Swansea City at the start of the season. The 32-year-old’s signing was seen as a masterstroke by Mauricio Pochettino as Llorente was expected to provide Harry Kane with some competition and cover.
However, the former Juventus and Athletic Bilbao striker has now stated that he is willing to move to one of his former clubs, which won’t be great news for us.
Calciomercato carried the quotes from the World Cup winning Spaniard when he was asked if rejoining Juventus was part of his plan.
“In black and white I spent two of the best years of my life.”
However, the new Spurs man was quick to say that he was happy at Spurs now, thougb he claimed Juventus was a family for him.
“Juventus is like a family to me. Back in the future? Never say never, but I’m good at Tottenham.”
It does make sense for Llorente to speak well of his former employers as he did win a couple of league titles with the Old Lady. Juventus too have been struggling of late and aren’t dominating Serie A as Napoli have a 5-point lead over the Turin side.
Further, Llorente could provide Juventus with a lot more after his two-year contract at Spurs comes to an end. The Spaniard did score 27 goals in two seasons with the Serie A giants and he could do a lot for them given that older players tend to have a better impact in the league.
Serie A isn’t as dynamic as the Premier League and with his towering headers, Llorente could still be a force to reckon with in Italy.
Llorente didn’t actually struggle in the Premier League too as he scored 15 goals for Swansea last season which kept them away from relegation. The Spaniard however, has a different role here at Spurs and it would have been a surprise if Pochettino did not tell him that Harry Kane was the first-choice at the club.
Llorente is a good player to have on the bench but he isn’t anything more than that for us. Should he decide to leave in a couple of years, it would not hurt us a lot but deciding to leave anytime before next summer could be a major blow for any plans we have of winning silverware.
I think we needed someone and his experience is useful. He will want to play more. Levy likes to get his money back. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him go after a year and Levy try to get most of our £12m back. At 33 he’s too old for a striker at a club like Juventus. Mandzukic is probably just a bit better than him anyway. Maybe Bilbao would take him back. Aduriz is 35, going on 36. It’s hard to give any 2nd striker much time when your no.1 is so good (Kane). We do lack some pace at Wembley and missed a trick not buying a more pacey striker or a quick winger. Bruma may not be doing well at Leipzig. But Keite Balde, was from a strong Italian league, he went to Monaco and would have been good, only 22. I like Son, but he hasn’t started well this season. Either his mate going has affected him, or putting Sanchez in and less starts for Son, has made him less effective.