Spurs are still looking for a Mousa Dembele replacement so why not try to bring Ligue 1 rising star Tanguy Ndombele to the Premier League?
It is no secret what Tottenham Hotspur are looking for this summer.
Mousa Dembele has only one year remaining on his Spurs contract and Mauricio Pochettino is clearly looking for a long-term successor to be the new heartbeat of his midfield.
In recent months, Spurs have been linked with powerful, athletic and technically gifted enforcers like Geoffrey Kondogbia, Amadou Diawara and Abdoulaye Doucoure.
Lucas Tousart, however, is not quite cut from the same cloth. According to Calciomercato, Spurs are battling bitter rivals Arsenal for the £23 million-rated Lyon midfielder, a 20-year-old who made his breakthrough last season and impressed en route to the Europa League semi-finals.
Now Tousart is a real talent, starting 29 Ligue 1 games this season and earning comparisons with none other than Didier Deschamps thanks to his work-rate and selflessness in the centre of the park.
But if Spurs want a midfielder a la Dembele, someone who can break up play and start attacks all by himself with a powerful yet elegant burst from deep, Tousart’s Lyon team-mate Tanguy Ndombele should be the name on Pochettino’s lips.
The France U21 star has been a revelation at Lyon since he joined from Amiens in August, so much so that Les Dogues will surely not wait around to make his loan move permanent for around £7 million this summer, as reported by L’Equipe.
An athletic and rangy midfielder, Ndombele is very much in the mould of a Kondogbia, a Doucoure or, whisper it, a Dembele. And though the technical side of his game needs some work, he is a raw athlete capable of giving Tottenham a real presence in the centre of the park when the Belgian talisman finally bids farewell.
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