Perhaps it’s a little be harsh to single out Davinson Sanchez for the role he played in Nottingham Forest’s opening goal during Wednesday’s commanding and well-deserved 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup.
The City Ground faithful would have been as surprised as he was as Renan Lodi chopped inside onto his weaker right foot before beating an inspired Fraser Forster with an inch-perfect curling shot into the far corner. The Brazil international, after all, had not scored a goal with his ‘swinger’ since 2018.
Then again, the ease of which Renan Lodi waltzed past Sanchez before giving Forest the lead – while delivering a major blow to Antonio Conte’s hopes of ending Spurs’ long trophy drought – will not have come as a surprise to a Tottenham fanbase now desensitised to passive, feeble defending from a man who’s English football career is littered with almost identical errors.
Sanchez turned 26 in the summer. If he’s not learned by now, he never will.
“He’s just an accident waiting to happen,” former Spurs midfielder Jamie O’Hara told talkSPORT in October of a player who cost Tottenham a club-record £42 million when arriving from Ajax in 2018.
“Honestly, it’s ridiculous how bang average he is.”
Is Cameron Carter-Vickers simply better than Tottenham’s Davinson Sanchez?
The level may be different, of course, but with Cameron Carter-Vickers’ excelling north of the border at Celtic, one wonders if Tottenham backed the wrong horse last summer; keeping faith in Sanchez while selling ‘CCV’ for a bargain £6 million following an excellent loan spell in Glasgow.
If Sanchez resembled a rusty old banger with a leaky exhaust on the banks of the Trent, Carter-Vickers was a veritable Rolls Royce; Celtic moving seven points clear of Old Firm rivals Rangers with a hard-fought 2-1 win at Motherwell in midweek.
“Carter-Vickers is the best centre-half I’ve seen at Celtic since (Virgil) Van Dijk,” former Northern Ireland international Ryan McLaughlin tweeted in October following another near-faultless performance from a man who will be hoping start against England in Qatar later this month.
Ex-Celtic hero Chris Sutton, meanwhile, labels Carter-Vickers ‘immense‘. The Southend-born-USA international has captained the Hoops during five of their last six league games, and already looks certain to add a second successive Premiership title to his personal trophy cabinet.
Of course, there is quite a gulf in glass between Motherwell and Manchester City, Livingston and Liverpool. But while Sanchez continues to feel like a lost cause, one wonders if Spurs would make a different decision about Carter-Vickers’ future if they could turn back the clock.
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