During the summer transfer window, it was said that Kim Min-jae wanted to join Tottenham as he aimed to leave Fenerbahce.
As the weeks went on, Spurs ignored the South Korea international and eventually decided to sign Clement Lenglet on loan from Barcelona for the 2022/23 campaign.
It is hard to say whether the Frenchman has been a success for Tottenham yet, given the fact he has only made two starts in the Premier League.
However, as Lenglet settles in, Min-jae has become a hero in Naples.
What’s the story?
Well, Napoli eventually signed the centre-back in a deal worth £16m after it became apparent Tottenham would not be making a move for him.
Now, Fabio Paratici – Director of Football at Spurs – probably regrets his decision to ignore Min-jae.
The 25-year-old has enjoyed a stunning start to life in Italy, scoring two goals in six league appearances to fire Napoli to the top of Serie A.
Min-Jae has also shone in the Champions League, helping Napoli to a 4-1 win over Liverpool before keeping a clean sheet at Ibrox in a 3-0 win over Rangers.
Now, the South Korean has been named in Europe’s best XI of the season by WhoScored.
As you can see, Min-jae has actually been the best performing centre-back statistically in Europe’s top five leagues so far this term, registering an average match rating of 7.46 for Napoli.
Tottenham missed out on a gem in Kim Min-jae
In our view, Spurs will kick themselves for missing out on Min-jae, especially as he was desperate to join.
Napoli secured themselves a bargain at just £16m – now, we think the defender’s value has probably tripled.
Therefore, if Lenglet doesn’t succeed in N17 and Tottenham find themselves back in the market for a new central defender in 2023, they now face paying a premium fee for the international colleague of Heung-min Son.
Hopefully, Lenglet does well for Spurs and they can forget about Min-jae.
At the moment, however, ignoring the Napoli No.3 looks to have been a serious error of judgement from the north Londoners.
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