Last year Modric ruined pre-season preparations at the Lane by demanding a move to Chelsea. Spurs fans should hope for a statement of commitment from the Croatian, or fear the worst.
As this season begins to enter it’s final stages, clubs are beginning to turn their attention to next summer.
Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy will already be working behind the scenes to establish next season’s management set up, if Harry Redknapp does leave, he will want to have a potential successor lined up straight away.
Another piece of business he needs to attend to is to get creative midfielder Luka Modric to confirm publicly that he intends to stay, as the transfer rumours are already beginning to start up again.
Last summer Modric was dissatisfied with a lack of Champions League football on offer. Right now, Spurs are on course to qualify for Europe’s elite competition for a second time in three years, although the player will have to work hard to ensure he and his teammates are not pipped at the post by a resurgent Arsenal and Chelsea.
Manchester United are long-time admirers of the Croatian, and it was perhaps a surprise they did not weigh in with a bid last summer considering the player’s unrest, and they have been linked with a move, most lately offering Dimitar Berbatov in return.
There may of course be nothing in this, and surely Berbatov would be a backwards step for Tottenham, but the very fact the rumours are bubbling away again could again unsettle the midfielder.
Chelsea are set for another overhaul, and Modric could again become a target, although that may too depend on which manager the club have in charge.
Either way, considering how detrimental the Modric saga was on Tottenham’s start to the season – it had shades of Berbatov in 2008 – Spurs cannot risk allowing it to happen again.
If they are, unlikely of course, willing to let him go, they should get the business done early, and give themselves all summer to splash the cash.
More likely, the club will want Modric to stay for the foreseeable future, and they should get him to commit as soon as possible.
Next season will be as competitive as this, possibly even more so, with Liverpool also set to spend big, and hopefully for them more wisely, and Spurs will need to hang onto their star players.
Tottenham fans, are you worried about Modric wanting out again this summer?
image: © apasciuto
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