Why Eduardo Salvio isn’t the answer to a £30m problem for Spurs

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Why spend a reported £25 million to fill a position already frequented by a £30m player?

According to the London Evening Standard, Eduardo Salvio has caught Tottenham Hotspur’s eye.

The Benfica winger, 24, will reportedly be the subject of a £25 million bid from the north London side this summer, potentially adding a skilful, pacy, right-sided forward to Mauricio Pochettino’s armory.

And, for a Premier League side with Champions League ambitions, there’d be little wrong with such a move.

Except for the fact that Tottenham have more or less already made that move with Erik Lamela.

The 22-year-old – younger than Salvio – is a right winger who was brought to Spurs for £30m. Lamela certainly hasn’t looked a £30m player (apart from during the briefest of flashes) but he is certainly getting somewhere under Pochettino…

As Opta stats show, no Tottenham player has won more dribbles per game than Lamela, while he is one of the north London side’s best tacklers, too – indicative of how his manager wants him to play.

But, even considering the 22-year-old’s flaws, of which there are many, does signing a winger to compete for the exact same position for a further £25m make any sense?

Salvio will need time to adapt to the Premier League, meaning Spurs may well end up with another hit-and-miss wide man just like Lamela, only a slightly older one – and one simply hindering Tottenham when it comes to financial fair play.

The other option, of course, is to offload Andros Townsend and have both Salvio and Lamela compete for the same position down the right-hand side. That would be a prospect to behold.

But, once again, when you already have a £30m winger staking his claim for a first-team place, where would signing a potential big-money replacement leave him? It all seems rather risky…