In truth, Toby Alderweireld, Eric Dier, Joe Rodon and Davinson Sanchez have made more crucial errors this month than Ezri Konsa has the whole season.
So if Jose Mourinho is intent on replicating the park-the-bus pragmatism that took him to the top at Inter Milan and Chelsea, signing one of the most underrated defenders in the entirety of the Premier League would feel like a major step in the right direction.
According to The Athletic, Konsa has admirers at Spurs and Liverpool less than two years after graduating from Brentford’s feted finishing school.
You would imagine Aston Villa would demand a sizeable profit for a home-grown talent they picked up in a bargain £12 million deal – especially in an era where Harry Maguire costs £80 million and James Tarkowski is valued in excess of £40 million.
The bullish, belligerent Tyrone Mings may the more high-profile Aston Villa centre-half but, as many of the claret-and-blue fanbase will tell you, Konsa may be the superior defender.
The London-born 23-year-old has barely put a foot wrong all season.
Commanding and classy in equal measure, Konsa shares more than a few similarities with a young Alderweireld – throwing his body in the way of a goal-bound shot one minute and starting an attack the next with an inch-perfect through-ball.
Did we mention Konsa is a boyhood Spurs fanatic?
“Of course,” Konsa told FourFourTwo in 2018 (May edition, page 80) when asked if he dreams of a future in north London.
“Tottenham are now a heavyweight team so I’d love to go there. Why not?”
Why not indeed?
But how do Tottenham fans feel about the potential arrival of a Spurs-supporting, Rolls-Royce of a defender?
Here’s how some of them responded on Twitter to the speculation:
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