Matt Doherty has been backed to complete his move to Tottenham Hotspur by a former Wolverhampton Wanderers teammate, with Jamie O’Hara telling the Guardian Football Daily that ‘he’ll do well’ in north London.
While last season’s run to the Champions League final papered over a lot of cracks, those very same chasms were brutally exposed during a campaign in which Spurs finished seven points adrift of the top four and extended their trophy drought to a 12th year.
The full-back positions have perhaps come to epitomise the rapid decline of this once exhilarating team too, with neither Serge Aurier nor Ben Davies coming close to matching Kyle Walker or Danny Rose at their peerless peak.
Aurier, in particular, has become something of a whipping boy for some members of the Tottenham fan base, thanks an unhelpful combination of schoolboy errors at one end and a lack of quality at the other.
O’Hara, however, feels that Doherty will represent a major upgrade with the Ireland international expected to complete a £12 million deal; one that could rise to £17 million (Guardian).
“I played with Doherty when I was at Wolves. He’s always been fantastic and he’s gone from strength to strength,” says O’Hara, who started his career at Tottenham.
“The position he played for them as wing-back is absolutely frightening, he’s a great lad he will fit straight into that dressing room he’s a great character. He knows how to play right-back, he played right-back anyway he can adapt to any formation.
“I think when you watch Mourinho the way he played he had that lopsided formation with the full-back really bombing on from the right so I think he’s a great addition to the Spurs squad, I think he’ll do well.”
A rampaging right-back who resembles a winger more than he does a defender, Docherty has scored or assisted 30 goals since the start of 2018/19 – twice the amount Aurier has produced (15).
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