Real Madrid eyeing Eriksen gives Spurs ideal chance to prove point

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Tottenham Hotspur playmaker Christian Eriksen is being linked with a move to the Champions League winners.

In the summer of 2012, Tottenham sold Luka Modric to Real Madrid in a deal worth £30 million, according to BBC Sport. As disappointing as it was at the time to lose the Croatian, it seemed to be accepted that he was taking a step forward in his career by moving to the Bernabeu.

Spurs had just finished fourth in the top flight, but Chelsea’s Champions League win meant that they would be playing in the Europa League for a second year in a row. They would ultimately finish outside the top four in the following three seasons and see another key man follow in Modric’s footsteps, with Gareth Bale leaving one year later.

Six years on from that Modric deal, Spurs are now having to brace themselves for more links with Madrid with Marca reporting that Christian Eriksen is on Los Blancos’ radar as they consider Modric’s long-term successor.

But rather than fear the prospect of Eriksen heading to Spain, Mauricio Pochettino and Daniel Levy should relish the links and use this as an opportunity to show how far they have come as a club since Modric made the understandable decision to leave.

Interest in Eriksen should surprise no-one. The 26-year-old has scored 18 goals and provided 25 assists across the last two Premier League seasons – but that form would make it all the sweeter if Spurs manage to hold onto the Denmark international amid interest from Real.

Spurs are now an established top four side and are gradually building a squad that is taking them closer and closer to the silverware that their progress deserves to be rewarded with.

Selling their best players is no longer a formality for Tottenham – even when the side that has won four of the last five Champions League titles comes calling. They cannot afford to get complacent but they are certainly not a team that should simply be honoured by Madrid taking an interest in their players.

Spurs need to make a handful of statement signings this summer after another year without a trophy, but perhaps one of the strongest statements that they could make would be to show how far they have come in recent years by preventing history repeating itself with Madrid interested in one of their best players once again.