Tottenham Hotspur’s reported interest in Koki Machida has not come as a surprise to one former Belgium international with Gert Verheyen describing those Premier League links as ‘logical’.
Left-sided centre-halves are all the rage these days.
And after Tottenham Hotspur signed one of the very best around in the shape of Micky van de Ven – the Dutchman so impressive since his £34 million arrival from VFL Wolfsburg – Ange Postecoglou is looking to bring in another.
According to 90Min, Tottenham’s ‘top priority’ in the January window is to find a defender well suited to Postecoglou’s possession-heavy, high-line tactics. Lloyd Kelly, Marc Guehi, Jarrad Brnathwaite, Morato and Goncalo Inacio are all under consideration, and are all left-footers.
AC Milan’s Malick Thiaw, outstanding against Spurs in the Champions League last season, is more comfortable on his right but has impressed on the left for the Rossoneri (Daily Mail).
Tottenham Hotspur eye Koki Machida
Koki Machida is another potential reinforcement. While not quite as highly-regarded as Inacio, and lacking the proven Premier League track record of a Guehi and a Branthwaite, Machida’s outstanding performances for Union Saint-Gilloise means that rumours of Tottenham’s interest are being greeted with a degree of expectations over in Belgium.
“That is normal. Not so much that it’s Tottenham, but that there’s interest,” Verheyen, capped 50 times by the Rote Duivels, tells Sporza.
“That is quite logical.”
26-year-old Machida, an impressive distributor and physically imposing to at 6ft 3ins, would be the latest Japanese talent brought to Britain by Postecoglou. The Spurs boss enjoyed real success alongside Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate at Celtic.
‘There is a lot of interest’
Union Saint-Gilloise CEO Philippe Bormans, however, is hardly rolling out the red carpet for Spurs in their pursuit of Machida.
“Every year, we have been reasonably successful in keeping everyone together in the winter,” the USG chief explains. “We’re going to try that again now.”
“There is a lot of interest, but we will try to hold it off until after the season. We first want to achieve something together.”
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