Do past comments from Mauricio Pochettino make an Erik Lamela exit from Tottenham Hotspur unlikely to materialise this month?
According to La Roma 24, Tottenham Hotspur have held talks with Roma over letting Erik Lamela re-sign for the Italian club this month.
The 25-year-old only has 18 months left on his current contract and recently returned from a year-long absence with a hip injury.
Providing they have a replacement lined up, it seems feasible that Tottenham could offload him, but do comments from Mauricio Pochettino in November suggest he’ll be staying in North London?
Lamela, a £30 million signing in 2013, made his long-awaited return in the 2-1 defeat at Leicester City in November, setting up Harry Kane to score a consolation within a minute of coming on.
Afterwards, Pochettino told Football London: “Of course Erik is a player that has different qualities and his quality in the team was very helpful for us and in the future we are going to need him.”
Fast forward two months and although Lamela has been reduced to a bit-part role, with nine of his 11 Premier League appearances coming off the bench, those comments suggested at the time that Pochettino had no intention of losing him.
Of course, it’s possible that the Argentine boss has had a change of heart since then, but Lamela, when fit, has been a regular fixture in Pochettino’s best XI since he arrived in 2014.
It suggests that he is a big fan of the former Roma man, with his work ethic and high-energy pressing epitomising what Pochettino looks for, and it would be a surprise if he were to leave the Lilywhites this month – especially given there is only six days left in the window.
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