Tottenham Hotspur’s Fernando Llorente was linked with Chelsea last week.
Tottenham Hotspur only signed Fernando Llorente from Swansea City back on deadline day in August, but the Spaniard may already be fighting for his Spurs career.
The 32-year-old hit 15 Premier League goals for Swansea last term, and with Mauricio Pochettino looking for competition for star striker Harry Kane, Spurs swooped to land him.
However, Llorente hasn’t managed to replicate his Swansea success with Spurs, and has scored just one Premier League goal this term, and has started just the one league game under Pochettino.
Spurs have so far struggled to find a way to utilise Llorente to the best of his abilities, and reports emerging from the end of the January transfer window suggest that Spurs may already be prepared to let the former Athletic Bilbao man leave.
BBC Sport reported that Chelsea – managed by Llorente’s former Juventus boss Antonio Conte – wanted to land Llorente, though talks over a swap deal involving Michy Batshuayi fell through over the Belgian’s refusal to join Spurs.
Chelsea ended up signing Olivier Giroud from Arsenal, but Tottenham seemingly being ready to let Llorente go already should trigger alarm bells for the former Spanish international.
Pochettino certainly hasn’t got the best out of Llorente so far, and at 32, time is somewhat running out for Tottenham to really see the striker at his best, and offloading him to bring in a younger striker may be appealing this summer.
With the transfer window closed for a number of months now, Llorente does have a chance to save his career, possibly starting with this week’s FA Cup replay against Newport County, but he must start taking his chances before the end of the season, or risk being offloaded.
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