Speaking to The Athletic, Kieran Trippier has been chatting about Tottenham Hotspur and some of their recent transfer decisions.
Tottenham have regressed in recent years, that much is obvious.
They’ve gone from being Champions League finalists to Conference League strugglers, and that’s at least partially down to their dodgy transfer business.
Their big-name signings such as Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso haven’t worked out, while they’ve also sold a number of talented players.
Kieran Trippier says that one sale that baffled him above all others was the sale of Mousa Dembele back in 2019.
What’s Trippier said about Dembele?
Trippier criticised Spurs’ decision to let the Belgian go.
“For me, the big one was selling (midfielder) Mousa Dembele that January,” Trippier said.
“I think I can speak on behalf of the players who were there. In the dressing room, he was an unbelievable person and all the lads loved him, but on the pitch he was the kind of player who would make a couple of per cent difference. That’s what wins you things.
“It baffled me that they would sell him. I know he was going to be a free (transfer) in the summer, but with the things we were challenging for, I would have kept him there and then let him go. He was the difference between winning a trophy or not.”
Money talks
Trippier may be baffled as to why Spurs sold Dembele, but we can think of one massive reason why.
Money talks in football, and Dembele wanted to go and earn the big bucks in China.
Apparently, Dembele’s head was turned when he spoke to Axel Witsel about how much he was earning in China during an international break with Belgium, and when the chance to move to Guangzhou came up, it would have been hard to convince him to stay.
Spurs probably would have liked to have kept Dembele, but at the end of the day, the player also gets to have a say on their own future.
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