Should Tottenham Hotspur sell teenage sensation if €60m bid comes in? – Opinion

Tottenham Hotspur signed Swedish prodigy Lucas Bergvall in the winter of 2024, and he arrived within the corridors of Hotspur Way last summer. So it hasn’t been too long ago that the North Londoners got their hands on the teenager, as he only arrived from Djurgårdens IF about twelve months back, and given his elite-level potential and a playing style that’s often likened to a mix between Pedri and Odegaard, Bergvall has shown foundations to become a future midfield leader at Tottenham.

We saw him not only gliding through the opponents presses, but he was also an elite presence on the presses himself, and then in the creative aspects of the game, we saw how he took over the attacking against the opposition with times when he was more of an attacking threat than Maddison in high-profile games.

And a recent report by Sport Witness suggested that there are clubs willing to take away the midfielder from the corridors for Hotspur Way for a fee as high as €60m, which led me into thinking on whether Tottenham and Daniel Levy should consider selling the teenager if the willingness to sign him were to convert into an actual bid…

So, should Tottenham sell? Let’s try to look into this with different perspectives:

Looking at it from a sporting point of view, is Bergvall a long-term asset?

The Swede fits in perfectly with the values that Thomas Frank puts into his midfielders. He is quite press resistant when facing excessive presses and has the capacity to carry the ball through tight spaces, and then he gives you that intelligence complemented with spatial control. I will not go and call Bergvall just a #10; he is more. I think he is a more modern hybrid midfielder who is capable of playing deep-lying roles as well as an interior in a 4-3-3. And his ability to play in tight middle-third areas gives him that capacity to play in the compact mid-block structure with a transitional approach that Thomas Frank wants to implement at N17.

Moreover, Bergvall is still a teenager and hasn’t featured under Frank yet. The Dane has the capacity to make him into an elite profile just like he did Mikkel Damsgaard and Vitaly Janelt at Brentford, and if he plays under him for a while, we can see his market value possibly doubling in a couple of years time.

Financial point of view

Given that clubs are willing to pay €60m for Bergvall, that would be 4x profit on a player who was signed for under €15m, and given that he has not yet had any significant first-team impact, there will not be any major tactical loss at N17 in the short term. And with that money, Daniel Levy can end up financing 1 or maybe 2 first-team-ready signings.

Strengths

He has already attained elite level despite being very young, and given his attributes, they fit in under how Thomas Frank wants to play quite perfectly. And as I said, if he were to play under the Dane, there is a high possibility that he could end up being a £100m+ asset by 2026.

So why is Daniel Levy not shipping him out just yet?

Tottenham are building a long-term project, and Levy is prioritising squad value over individual values given how he is bringing in a lot of tactically adaptable talents at N17. And if he were to sell him just about now, it would end up setting a dangerous precedent where we could then see big clubs trying to poach other young signings quite early.

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Author Opinion

There have been times when Tottenham have sold early, often because of fear or maybe having short-term sights, and if Levy is to sanction a move for Bergvall, it would be another example of losing a strong upside player, given how Bergvall is more than just a technical player who is wired to play for Frank. And if given time and adequate coaching, he could be a Champions League-quality starter in 12-18 months time.