Spurs ready £30m bid for “one of the PL’s best players”

Tottenham Hotspur‘s season is still alive.

On Thursday night, a goal down from the first leg in Alkmaar, Spurs ultimately saw off AZ in the Europa Leagueprogressing 3-2 on aggregate, with Wilson Odobert the scorer of a brace, while James Maddison was on target in between.

Ange postcoglou‘s team will now take on Eintracht Frankfurt in the quarter-finals, welcoming die Adler to North London for the first leg on 10 April, before the decider at Waldstadion a week later.

Potentially not in UEFA competition next season, and possibly searching for a new manager, it’s a big summer ahead for Daniel Levy and the Spurs hierarchy, so are they already plotting a bid for one of the Premier League‘s best attacking full-backs?

Spurs seeking to sign a new full-back

According to The Boy HotspurTottenham’s number one full-back target this summer is Wolves‘ Rayan Aït-Nouriplanning an ‘opening bid’ of €35m (£30m), albeit with the Algerian international valued at closer to €60m (£51m).

As per the report, despite being pleased with his current options at left-back, Postecoglou is seemingly keen to add further competition on that side, with Everton’s Vitaliy Mykolenko and Girona’s Miguel Gutierrez also noted as potential targets.

In the past, Manchester United have shown an interest in Aït-Nouri, while Sean McCormick of the Liverpool Echo notes the full-back ‘has been tipped’ to move to the Premier League champions-elect.

So, he won’t come cheap and Tottenham do face competition for his signature, but how would the 23-year-old fit in, should he choose to move to North London?

How Aït-Nouri would improve Spurs’ left-back options

When Aït-Nouri joined Wolves from Angers, initially on loan before making the move permanent for a £9.5m feethen-technical director Scott Sellars described him as “a very talented player, with lots of potential”.

Well, he has certainly been proved right, making 148 appearances in Old Gold to date, with Jacek Kulig of Football Talent Scout labelling his performances “fantastic”, while Steve Madeley of the Athletic boldly asserts he is ‘Wolves’ most indispensable player’,

On top of this, Sky Sports’ Dougie Critchley described him as “one of the Premier League’s best players in 2024”, which is exactly why Tottenham are interested in him due to, as noted by Venkatanarayanan of Total Football Analysishis outstanding ‘attacking prowess’.

So far this season, across all competitions, five Spurs players have been deployed at left-back, as the table below documents.

With former undisputed first-choice Destiny Udogie having been in and out due to a hamstring injuryDjed Spence has often been tasked with filling in at left-back.

Spence’s Spurs career so far has been peculiar to say the least, taking 881 days to make his Premier League debut for the club, this coming at Southampton in December, having infamously been labelled a “club signing” by Antonio Conte upon his arrival.

Nevertheless, his performances, either on the left or the right, have earned high praise, with Jay Harris of the Athletic describing him as ‘undroppable’. So, let’s analyse how Spence and Aït-Nouri compare.

As the table outlines, Aït-Nouri comes out on top for both attacking and defensive metrics – including goals and assists – with Spence only superior when it comes to both passing and dribbling.

As alluded to earlier, former forgotten man Spence has exceeded expectations out-of-position on the left, but this is still an area Postecoglou will surely seek reinforcements, should he remain in situ, and Aït-Nouri’s statistics suggest he would excel at Spurs, given the freedom to get forward and contribute to attacks.