Lucas Moura should complete his £23 million move to Tottenham Hotspur tomorrow morning after he had a tour of the club’s training ground and underwent a medical today.
The Brazil winger would be the second player to join Tottenham from Paris Saint-Germain in five months and the club’s first senior signing in a January transfer window since 2013, as Dele Alli joined and stayed on loan at Milton Keynes Dons.
Tottenham have been pursuing a winger for a couple of seasons and have been rebuffed several times by Crystal Palace for Wilfried Zaha, but Mauricio Pochettino, the head coach, today declined to talk about Moura until he put pen to paper.
Why are Tottenham attracted to Moura?
He is lively and has impressed with his trickery to beat a man and an eye for goal. He managed 12 league goals last season and nine strikes in the previous campaign when he also had three assists. Those statistics are important as Tottenham have relied heavily on goals from Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen and Son Heung-Min and Alli. The rest of the side have hardly contributed.
Where would he play?
It is likely that Moura will play on the right of three attacking players behind Kane, if Tottenham use a 4-2-3-1 system. Moussa Sissoko has sometimes operated without much success in that position, alongside Alli and Eriksen, or sometimes Son has started on the left and the latter two players shuffle across. None of these provide width, however, which is something Moura would offer. Tottenham (with Erik Lamela injured) successfully overcame not having a proper wide player by using the pace from full back. Kyle Walker and Danny Rose were handed licence to bomb on, especially when Tottenham switched to a wing back system. But using that system this season has been less successful. Walker has left for Manchester City and Rose was injured and keen also to move on. Kieran Trippier delivers an excellent cross from the right but neither he or Ben Davies on the left are lightning fast.
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A bit unusual for Tottenham to be signing players in January...
Tottenham prefer to sign players in the summer. Lewis Holtby was the last mid-season signing for the first team when he joined in January 2013. Moura is a step-up in quality. Capped 36 times by Brazil and 25 years old, he fits into Tottenham’s preference to sign players of that age or younger - there is the potential for a sell on and value. Tottenham have been in tricky position in the transfer market for several reasons. It has been hard for them to find a player good enough to go into their first XI. Who would be better than Christian Eriksen or Harry Kane, for example, and also within Tottenham’s budget on transfers and wages (which is restricted by their new stadium being built)? This has restricted the pool of possible targets: when the club wanted a back-up for Kane they dithered over whether it should be a youngster or experienced player who in both cases would be happy to play second fiddle. The club signed Vincent Janssen, who had an impressive record at AZ Alkmaar, but he struggled. Last summer the club went the other way but Fernando Llorente, 32, has not recaptured his form for Swansea City.
What went wrong for Moura at PSG?
Moura ended his fifth season in Paris with 16 goals from 48 appearances but has not started any of his five league games in this campaign. The arrivals of Neymar and Kylian Mbappé threw in doubt the futures of several players including Moura. PSG need to trim costs to keep in line with Uefa Financial Fair Play regulations before they are contractually obliged to make Mbappé’s loan deal permanent for £170 million next summer. He was offered to Arsenal and Valencia among other clubs and his representatives also met with Napoli.