Nice’s Ligue 1 flyer Youcef Atal is being linked with a January move to Jose Mourinho’s Spurs.
Three years ago, Tottenham Hotspur finished second in the Premier League with two of the fastest and most fearsome full-backs anywhere in world football rampaging down the flanks at White Hart Lane.
But the days of Kyle Walker and Danny Rose terrorising top flight defences and providing a relentless stream of crosses from out wide are long gone. The former defected to Manchester City in the summer of 2017 after a high-profile fall out with Mauricio Pochettino while the latter, slowed down by injuries, is a shadow of his former fleet-footed self.
Pochettino did a lot of good for Spurs in over five years in North London but his failure to adequately replace Walker certainly contributed to his sudden fall from grace.
The decision to sell Kieran Trippier and keep the typically erratic Serge Aurier looked questionable at best right from the start while Kyle Walker-Peters was never really handed a run of games to prove himself under the Argentine tactician.
So one of Jose Mourinho’s first tasks as Tottenham manager is to solve a problem of Pochettino’s making and ensure the right-back spot is in safe hands for years to come. Reports from 90Min that Youcef Atal could be on his way to North London in January, however, suggest that positive steps are already being taken.
The 23-year-old Algerian is the very definition of a modern full-back. A brilliant technician with rapid pace and an eye for goal, Atal is equally capable of playing on the right or the left and has taken to Ligue 1 by storm since arriving at Nice in 2018 – even scoring a hat-trick against Guingamp in April.
If Saturday’s 3-2 win at West Ham is anything to go by, Mourinho’s new-look Tottenham side will look to attack with pace and aggression down the flanks with the former Chelsea coach giving Aurier plenty of freedom to wreak havoc at the London Stadium.
Atal, then, should fit Mourinho’s style like a tailored glove.
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