By the looks of it, the North Londoners pursuit to land Morgan Gibbs-White has hit a snag at the moment, and while many expect it to get over the line, Daniel Levy needs to ensure that he has backup plans ready, and this is where Manchester United wide forward Alejandro Garnacho comes into the picture.
The Lilywhites triggered Gibbs-White’s £60m release clause, but it ended up leaving Nottingham Forest fuming, as at City Ground there is a belief that clause was supposed to remain confidential, and now a threatened legal action has been threatened as Nottingham look to block the transfer. And while all of this drama is still unfolding, Spurs have started keeping their options more open, and Manchester United winger has once again popped up on the radar.
Now if we are talking about Garnacho, he was first discussed for a possible move to Tottenham back in January, but Daniel Levy opted to bring in Mathys Tel on a loan transfer eventually, but now with uncertainty around the Gibbs-White transfer, we can see the Lilywhites once again monitoring the situation with the Argentine forward who is also being targeted by Aston Villa and Chelsea.
Given his public spat with Ruben Amorim, the 21-year-old is training away from the main Man United squad after returning to Carrington, given that the former Atletico Madrid winger has been told that he is free to leave with the Manchester Reds open to offers for his signature. And while he was initially valued at £70m, there is now an expectation that the figure can drop as United push for his sale.
If we are talking about on-the-pitch actions, Garnacho still had a solid season with 11 goals and 10 assists, but we have seen tensions grow behind the scenes after United’s Europa League final defeat against Tottenham.
TBR Football recently revealed Chelsea had reopened talks to sign Garnacho after agreeing to sell Noni Madueke to Arsenal. And in a way bringing in Garnacho could well end up being a Madueke-esque arrival at Hotspur Way.
How can Frank replicate Mikel Arteta’s use of Madueke with Garnacho?
If we look at why Arsenal signed Madueke, then there is this general norm that the Gunners are going to use the incoming Chelsea ace more as a rotational option for Bukayo Saka in order to hand their star boy a sense of a breather every now and then. But then there is more, given the fact that Madueke can play on both flanks; he can also compete (or be used as a rotation) with the likes of Gabriel Martinelli on the left, giving Mikel Arteta the needed depth and assurance of quality irrespective of gameplay or personnel.
Now this can turn into a very similar situation that Thomas Frank will be facing at Hotspur Way. The Dane head coach at the moment has plenty of attacking talent at his disposal at N17, especially given the arrivals of Mohammed Kudus and Mathys Tel this summer.
Now if Frank wants to sign someone like Garnacho, he would be looking to use him as a competition and in a rotational role, especially given how the Argentine can play on the left as well as the right flank. And given how his explosiveness with the ball is very similar to Madueke’s, he can give Tottenham that optimal quality even in rotations, and that is exactly what is needed in today’s highly competitive Premier League season, especially if the Lilywhites are to compete at the table top.
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Author Opinion
Daniel Levy’s pursuit of signing Morgan Gibbs-White looked more of a straightforward thing to me, where the 63-year-old just needs to trigger a release clause, and voila, he ends up landing a Premier League-proven creative force who has the capacity to complement Thomas Frank’s rebuild at N17, but now we are in a situation where there is this sense of legal threats clouding the possible transfer, with Forest furious over the clause leak, which needs Tottenham to be more agile. And this is where Alejandro Garnacho looks like an opportunity too good to ignore.
With the Argentine winger, as I said above, the idea would be to replicate Noni Madueke’s projected role at Arsenal, and it makes complete sense to me given that just like Mikel Arteta brought in Madueke to rotate with Saka and offer cover across both wings, Thomas Frank can have someone with the capacity of Garnacho to act as an alternative to Kudus, Brennan Johnson, or even Mathys Tel.
Given that Garnacho has the ability to cut inside from the right, which ends up being a lot like how Kulusevski plays at Tottenham but with far more explosiveness. And he has already proven that he has the capacity to terrorise full-backs and deliver goals from that left flank.
Bringing in the Argentine gives you that tactical flexibility alongside a sense of depth, which is something you can’t always buy in the market unless you’re willing to spend £70m. And right now, that price is dropping.
