On a weekend in which Richarlison rediscovered his goalscoring prowess – netting twice during Tottenham Hotspur’s 4-1 Premier League shellacking of Newcastle United – Elye Wahi was left nursing very different emotions.
Richarlison ruthless, Elye Wahi wasteful.
The striker shot to fame during a dazzling breakthrough season at Montpellier in 2022/23 – the club’s president confirming an offer from Chelsea and interest from Tottenham – but the real test comes now.
After sealing a £30 million move to Lens instead – becoming comfortably the club’s most expensive ever player in the process – Wahi has scored just two goals in 12 Ligue 1 games. And, after missing a trio of glorious opportunities during Friday night’s 0-0 stalemate with his old employers, the Montpellier supporters who watched Wahi fall to pieces like a cheap jigsaw inside the penalty area could have been forgiven for wondering if they cashed in at precisely the right time.
Tottenham Hotspur wanted Elye Wahi
“There are offers. We expect more,” Montpellier chief Laurent Nicollin told RMC Sport late in the summer window, shortly before Lens won the race for one of Europe’s most coveted young forwards.
“We’ve had an offer from Chelsea. We thanked them, but we refused. We wait. I had Tottenham, who are interested, and they should move soon. There is also Frankfurt.
“This is a game of musical chairs; if (Harry) Kane leaves Tottenham and/or (Randal) Kolo Muani goes from Frankfurt, automatically things will change.
“We also learned that Benfica were interested.”
Just two Ligue 1 goals so far
In truth, Lens felt like little more than a stepping stone on the path to something greater when Wahi put pen to paper in August. Lens, after all, have a habit of betting heavily on budding youngsters before selling them on for a sizeable profit, see Cheick Doucoure, Lois Openda and Loic Bade.
But if Wahi is to follow in their footsteps, if he is to have Chelsea, Tottenham and Benfica sniffing around again, performances like Friday’s must be the exception rather than the rule.
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