Andre Villas-Boas watched Porto play PSG during the week, with plenty of reports saying he was again scouting Joao Moutinho, but the Portuguese midfielder is very unlikely to move anywhere in January.
Spurs deadline day failure to sign Joao Moutinho was a real blow to their form in the first half of the season, especially with both Dembele and Parker out for long stretches. Since then there has been plenty of speculation that Spurs will again try to sign Moutinho in January, especially when Villas-Boas was seen at Porto’s match with PSG during the Champions League on Tuesday.
However a winter move seems unlikely for a number of reasons, with the situation at both Spurs and Porto changing since the summer.
For Spurs, their central midfield suddenly looks like the strongest area of the team. Villas-Boas clearly knew he had Sandro, Dembele and Parker at his disposal when he tried to sign Moutinho in August, but perhaps didn’t realise how good Sandro and Dembele would be.
Both the Belgian and the Brazilian have been excellent for Spurs in the position you would expect Moutinho to play, with Parker still to return to first team action. There’s no doubt Moutinho would still be an excellent player to have at Spurs, but the need for fresh blood is perhaps now greater in other areas of the side.
Further to this, Porto are very unlikely to want to sell Moutinho in January. The Portuguese club made £70 million from selling players in the summer, with the bulk of that coming from Hulk’s move to Zenit.
They clearly have no financial concerns to address by selling Moutinho, and with the club reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League, they will want to keep their best players until the summer at least.
This would mean that Moutinho would have to try and force a move if it was to happen, and it’ shard to see the motivation for the player to do that. He is a key part of Champions League side, something Spurs cannot offer at this stage.
The form of Dembele and Sandro may also enter his thinking, and he’d have to force himself into a side halfway through a season where players are excelling in his position.
Villas-Boas clearly stills has designs on Moutinho, but the summer just past may have been Spurs only real shot unless they can get into the Champions League this season. With their central midfielders playing well, the money required for Moutinho could certainly be better spent elsewhere in January, a mid-season move doesn’t look like making sense for anyone.
What do you think, should Spurs sign Moutinho?
image: © goulao
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