Rangers have been reportedly offered the chance to sign Tottenham midfielder Harry Winks as Spurs look to cash in on the England star – a player that Graeme Souness criticised in 2019, but did state is “neat and tidy”.
Winks, 26, has fallen down the pecking order at Tottenham. Rodrigo Bentancur joined the club in January and became first choice immediately. Spurs have signed Yves Bissouma from Brighton this summer, for £30million.
With Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Oliver Skipp also at Spurs, Winks is now fifth choice and needs to go. Spurs have informed the player he can leave the club this summer, if a fee of £20million is put on the table.
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That would blow Rangers’ current club-record signing of Tore-Andre Flo out of the water – but a loan could be realistic. Speaking about Winks in 2019, Rangers icon Souness said Winks needs to do more – but is “neat and tidy”.
“He’s neat and tidy,” Souness told Sky Sports PL on 10/02/2019. “I’m trying to find nice words to say about him as a young boy. I was a young midfielder at 24, I would have wanted to do more than he does.
“Passing it five yards that way and ten yards this way. I think he [Winks] recycles the ball really well. I want more. I want him to do it further up the pitch and I want him hurting teams.”
Rangers offered Winks: Souness criticised him in 2019
While branding the Spurs academy graduate as neat and tidy, Souness is bang on. Winks needs to do more in an attacking sense and it is something Jose Mourinho tried to get out of him during the Portuguese gaffer’s reign.
But it did not work. Winks is the kind of player able to offer a defensive screen, dictating the tempo. He needs to play in a 4-3-3 system with two box-to-box midfielders alongside him, to compliment him.
If Rangers are after a midfielder with Champions League experience, one that terrorised Real Madrid in 2017, that can keep things ticking over – Winks is ideal. He might be the perfect anchor to Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s midfield.
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