Tottenham Hotspur have four senior centre backs right now, but another one could arrive at the end of the season.
Toby Alderwiereld’s future is unclear, Davinson Sanchez is inconsistent, Eric Dier has been up and down and Joe Rodon is only in his first Premier League season.
One interesting link emerged in Ukraine last month, as Football.ua reported that Tottenham are interested in signing Mykola Matyviyenko.
It’s claimed that the an agent spoke to Tottenham after a recent game against Dynamo Kiev, seemingly teeing up a potential summer move.
Matviyenko has come up through the Shakhtar ranks, and now has more than 100 first-team appearances for the club.
A fairly undersized centre back at 6ft tall, Matviyenko is quick and comfortable on the ball, whilst he can play at left back as well as a left-sided centre back.
Those attributes mean Matviyenko could fit as an ideal long-term successor to Jan Vertonghen, who left Tottenham for Benfica last summer.
Spurs failed to add a left-footed centre back to replace Vertonghen in 2020, but Matviyenko could be the man to fill that role given his profile.
What’s also interesting is that the agent Spurs contacted allegedly works for the same agency – CAA Base – that represents Son Heung-min and Dele Alli.
Matviyenko’s actual agent is Yuriy Danchenko, meaning CAA Base may use their ties to Tottenham in order to be intermediaries helping Matviyenko make his big move to England.
90Min reported in January that Liverpool wanted Matviyenko before signing Ben Davies and Ozan Kabak instead, whilst Komanda1 suggested in January 2020 that Arsenal had agreed a deal for Matviyeno before going with Pablo Mari.
Those links to CAA Base could come in very handy for Spurs here, and Daniel Levy may need to negotiate with them once again if Spurs do want Matviyenko in for next season.
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