Son Heung-min is in the final months of his current contract at Tottenham
Son Heung-min has been one of Tottenham Hotspur’s best players for many years now.
The South Korean international joined Spurs back in 2015, and after taking almost a season to adapt to the demands of Premier League football, he hasn’t looked back since. The forward has scored 167 goals and supplied 88 assists in 424 appearances for the North Londoners, which is a fantastic return for someone who has largely operated out wide.
Already a legend at N17, Son Heung-min, however, hasn’t been at his sublime best this season. He has had to deal with a couple of injuries in the last couple of months, limiting him to just 16 appearances across all competitions where the club captain has netted only five goals. This has led to some criticism for the versatile forward, who has only six months left in his current contract at Spurs (Transfermarkt).
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TalkSPORT pundit Jamie O’Hara rates Son Heung-min highly and believes that he is a modern-day Tottenham legend. However, he does not think that the South Asian star is world-class anymore.
“Listen, I said about Son a couple of months ago, maybe a month ago, he was world-class, he isn’t anymore. That’s just how it is,” Jamie O’Hara said on talkSPORT when addressing a Spurs fan.
“He has been a brilliant player for Tottenham, but I think we need to find a replacement. I got slaughtered by Spurs fans for saying it, and I’m right. He is not good enough anymore.
“He can produce moments still, I get that, he has got something to offer. But he isn’t the Son we have been used to watching for the last three-four seasons.
“He’s not that player anymore. He can’t go past someone, he hasn’t got the pace, he hasn’t got the sharpness anymore.”
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Son’s powers are indeed waning. In fact, he has been declining since the end of the 2022/23 season. Yet, the South Korean superstar managed 17 goals and 10 assists in 35 Premier League appearances last season, shouldering the burden of scoring goals as well as creating chances following Harry Kane’s departure to Bayern Munich.
Perhaps, this is the reason why the chiefs at the Hotspur Way are not handing him a lucrative new contract and instead will trigger a one-year extension. The £190,000 per week forward did let the team down in a critical moment against Chelsea on Sunday. After winning the ball in the opposition half, he drove forward in the box and struck his shot wide in a 1v1 situation with goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, when the easy option was to slide it across to Timo Werner for a simple tap-in.
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Son did score in the stoppage time to make it 4-3 but it was just scant consolation, as Chelsea overturned Tottenham’s early 2-0 advantage to go 4-2 up. With every passing game, the Chuncheon-born ace is proving he is not the force anymore and our club would be wise to sign his long-term replacement next year, regardless he stays at the club beyond this season or not.
