Barcelona have won seven of their last ten games in all competitions. They’ve scored 26 goals in the process and are now perhaps the favourites to finish second in La Liga, closing in on a stuttering Sevilla while climbing up to third place.
Who would have thought an all-new front three – consisting of a £50 million Spain international, a returning World Cup winner and one of the most prolific goalscorers of the last decade – would make such a difference? Funny, that.
With Ferran Torres, Adama Traore and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang arriving in January, joining a now fully-fit Ousmane Dembele at the Camp Nou, Memphis Depay is starting to look like the odd-man out.
Like a jazz flute player in a heavy metal band. Like Kevin James in a hard-hitting political drama.
In fact, Depay’s been left out of Xavi Hernandez’s starting XI for all of Barcelona’s last three La Liga outings. Last summer’s marquee signing is arguably behind Torres, Traore, Dembele and Aubameyang in the Blaugrana pecking order these days too.
From first to fifth in the blinking of an eye.
No wonder Depay is already facing rumours regarding his future at the Camp Nou. This is a World Cup year after all.
Is Memphis Depay leaving Barcelona already?
And, according to Spain-based journalist Gerard Romero, Tottenham Hotspur are one of the first clubs to lodge an enquiry.
Those with long memories may recall that Depay turned down a move to North London nearly a decade ago, however, opting to join Manchester United in a £30 million deal from PSV Eindhoven.
Given the way things went for him at Old Trafford – and that Mauricio Pochettino would turn Spurs into a side renowned across the continent for turning promising youngsters into elite-level performers – one suspects he would make a different decision if he could turn back the clock.
The Pochettino era is a but a distant memory these days of course.
And, with five defeats in their last eight Premier League games, even Antonio Conte – arguably the finest ‘league manager’ in the world – is struggling to emulate the Argentine’s achievements.
And if supporters were hoping that there mere presence of Conte would give Tottenham a new-found pulling power in the transfer market, missing out on both Adama Traore and Luis Diaz in January felt like something of a brutal reality check.
If history repeats itself this summer – if Depay turns down Spurs again – then even the most optimistic Tottenham supporters would be forgiven for wondering what all of Pochettino’s hard work was for.
All that effort, all those hours on the training pitch, only to end up back where they started again.
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