Nothing would symbolise the transition from Jose Mourinho to a more exciting playing style better than the sight of Manuel Locatelli arriving at Tottenham Hotspur this summer.
It’s telling that, as soon as Mourinho swaggered through the door in November 2019, the watching world held its bated breath and prayed for Harry Winks.
The former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss famously values athleticism over aesthetics after all and Winks, a tidy ball-player who had become a key cog in the Mauricio Pochettino machine, always looked likely to be lost in Spurs’ move from a possession-heavy purist to the game’s great pragmatist.
And, sure enough, Winks spent most of Mourinho’s 16-month tenure sitting on the sidelines as Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Moussa Sissoko – two midfielders chosen for their energy and tenacity rather than ability with the ball – became two of the first names on the Tottenham team sheet.
But with Daniel Levy apparently looking for a more exciting brand of football, despite a deal with Paulo Fonseca slipping through his fingers, could Spurs be about to return to the sort of free-flowing, forward-thinking football that came to epitomise the Pochettino era?
Sissoko out, Locatelli in at Tottenham?
It could be a shame for Spurs that Fonseca isn’t on his way. It’s telling that, at Roma, Mourinho’s 49-year-old compatriot phased out the physical Amadou Diawara, handing over the deep-lying midfield role to a silky Spanish playmaker by the name of Gonzalo Villar.
Lorenzo Pellegrini and Jordan Veretout, two players equally renowned for their impressive passing range and technical skills, were also regulars in the Fonseca XI.
And it’s telling that, whoever is unveiled as Tottenham manager, new sporting director Fabio Paratici appears to be in the process of building a team suited to a more exciting style of football.
According to Sky Italia, Sissoko’s days are numbered under Paratici.
His replacement? The £30 million-rated Sassuolo talisman Manuel Locatelli, according to Gazzetta dello Sport.
Now, if Spurs fans are hoping Locatelli can add goals to an often barren midfield, they may be disappointed.
The 23-year-old’s stunning brace in Italy’s 3-0 Euro 2020 thrashing of Switzerland last night was the exception rather than the rule for a man who’s scored just 12 times in 174 professional games.
What the one-time AC Milan youngster lacks in goals, however, he makes up for in metronomic passing.
A distributor rather than a destroyer, the arrival of Locatelli – and the subsequent departure of Moussa Sissoko – should leave no-one in doubt.
A Tottenham team under Paratici would be a very different – and much more attractive – beast.
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