Tottenham Hotspur were reportedly ready to cash in on Son Heung-min back in 2016, but surely would not dream of selling him now.
It appears that Fernando Llorente’s days at Tottenham may be numbered with a report from the London Evening Standard earlier this week suggesting that Spurs will make the Spaniard available to leave the club this summer.
It has been an extremely disappointing first year with Mauricio Pochettino’s side for the 33-year-old, with just five goals coming in 28 appearances in all competitions, so in reality, it is probably not that great a surprise that Tottenham are weighing up selling the forward this summer.
But perhaps Llorente can take a bit of hope that he can still salvage his Spurs career by the fact that Pochettino seemingly almost dropped a clanger at the end of the 2015/16 season.
It seems that the only thing stopping an exit from happening was the fact that Spurs wanted to recoup the entire £22 million that they had spent on Son. And they will be delighted that no-one was willing to pay that figure.
The South Korean is now one of the most important players in Pochettino’s side having scored 18 times in 43 games this term. The idea of selling him is unimaginable.
Of course, given his age and Harry Kane being ahead of him in the pecking order, Llorente is never going to enjoy the turnaround that Son has undertaken, but Son’s transformation should give the Spaniard hope that if he stays, he can be a success at the job that he was brought in to do – which is providing Kane with goalscoring support.
There are more examples of players who have failed to recover from poor starts than there are examples of those who have enjoyed significant success after being written off, but Son’s dramatic turnaround should provide Llorente with some hope that he can salvage his Spurs career.
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