News broke last night that Spurs are in the process of signing defensive midfielder, Benjamin Stambouli, from Montpellier. There has been plenty of speculation linking Tottenham with a variety of players but this move has come out of the blue, demonstrating how little the tabloids and ITKs sometimes know.
Swansea and Fiorentina were rumoured to have made offers for the player, with interest also reported from our North London rivals. Stambouli is a particularly attractive option because, with just one year left on his contract, Montpellier are keen to sell at a reasonable price.
The deal is reported to be for around £6 Million pounds, much less than Spurs’ original target Morgan Schneiderlin is likely to have cost. Some sources quote Southampton demanding more than £25 Million for their want-away midfielder.
Stambouli is only 24, and normally plays just in front of the back four, though he has also featured at centre back and both fullback positions due to injuries and suspensions at his current club. He sounds less of a box-to-box than Schneiderlin, maybe more similar to Capoue – primarily defensive but with good ball distribution. Even at such a young age, he has captained Montpellier on occasion and is officially vice-captain.
Stambouli’s arrival indicates Pochettino isn’t convinced by his current options. With a plethora of centre midfielders already in the Spurs squad, it now looks likely at least one will leave, with Sandro the most likely candidate.
For the second time in a week Spurs seem to have given up on an expensive and complicated target and bought a cheaper but less exciting option. First we swapped Musacchio for Fazio, now Schneiderlin for Stambouli. Is this clever business from chairman Daniel Levy or short-sighted penny pinching?
Schneiderlin is not only a great player but also Pochettino’s man – a trusted leader on the pitch, a friendly presence in the dressing room. Someone to transmit the manager’s ideas to the rest of the team. This has a bit of the feel of our failed pursuit of Moutinho under Andre Villas-Boas.
On the other hand, Spurs are still getting a quality player and the money saved can be put to good use improving other areas of the team. As long as Pochettino is happy and has had input into the decision process, then on balance this seems like good business.
Discuss this with me on Twitter: @ABPSpurs
Do you think Stambouli is a good signing for Spurs? Let me know in the comments below.
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Anything But Penalties 
I think the penny-pinching versus good business debate is a good one. IF we go out and buy another striker and left winger before Tuesday (I’m furious we haven’t bid for Remy at £10m) then fair enough – if we don’t then I’d have hoped we’d have given MP at least one of his first choices when it comes to Musacchio and Schneiderlin. Still, we’ve signed two good players for decent money by the looks of it so it isn’t all bad. If we now see Bony and either Wellbeck or Konoplyanka come in and a few fringe players go the other way then I’ll say it’s been a very successful summer.
We could do with another attacking left sided player and that would be a good use for the money saved. I wonder if we might wait till the winter window to see if Rodriguez has recovered from his knee injury.
My only worry with Bony is that the African Cup of nations is coming up at the start of next year and he and Adebayor will probably both go.
Yeah the ACON is definitely a consideration – would leave us with a big gap if both our main strikers were to go. Personally in an ideal world I’d like to swap Ade for Bony then sign one other like Huntelaar (not literally, but sell Ade). Ade too inconsistent but I’m not sure we’d find a buyer really.
I expect we’ll see Sandro, BAE, Naughton and Holtby go over the next 48h as well.
I love the way fans all over the internet already label Muacchio, Fazio & Stambouli good or bad never having even them play before!
If Southampton were asking 27m as reported for Schneiderlin, my vote goes for good business…he simply isn`t worth anywhere near that amount
I know it`s early days yet, but my one concern with our transfer activity would again be the imbalance in the squad………..the number of defensive MF vs. the number of creative MF, I really hope we don`t get an injury to Eriksen because I can`t see anyone else similar to come in and create the chances for our strikers?
That is a worry. I was quite disappointed when we sold Siggurdson.
I was also sad to see Sigurdsson go but I think Lamela can also play as a number 10. Think he’s looking to have Eriksen, Lamela and Chadli all play free roles behind the striker so they’ll technically all be doing it. I also wonder if he might push Paulinho or Dembele further forward. Saying all that, I still wouldn’t be averse to seeing anew number 10 come in – someone with the ability to pick out a pass through the defence.
Schneiderlin is a good player, but he’s NOT a £25m player. The Saints don’t want to lose him and are holding out for silly money and who can blame them? Stambouli looks like a cheaper version, he’s available and it looks like Spurs have nabbed him. As for Musacchio, third party ownership problems caused him to move from being a reasonably priced defender to being a vastly overpriced defender. Fazio has been brought in for sensible money and Dier has been an absolute steal! We have a good team in place and these new players have been brought in to bring competiton for places, (look what Davies signing has done for Rose). If we get Stambouli, (or even if we don’t), I think that, with the resurgence of last seasons signings, we’ve had a very good window.
Its very difficult to make a summary of Stambouli as i have never even heard of the guy let alone seen him play but if MP is measuring him against Schneiderlin whom i think is no where near worth £26,000,000 i must go on MP`S assumption that the player is good business so pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese be a cracking player for Spurs , as for the Colossal Fazio this to has the hallmaks of the Stambouli and Schneiderlin comparisment the guy Musacchio was nothing but a web of entanglement regarding that third owership so i go with MP again and trust his judgement pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee be another success for Spurs playing wise .
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