da bet sport： This article is part of Football FanCast’s Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news…
da pinnacle： Tottenham Hotspur are tracking Real Sociedad defender Diego Llorente, per The Daily Mirror.
What’s the word?
The central defender has been with the Liga club since 2017, when he moved from Real Madrid.
However, the report states that Spurs, along with Leicester City and West Ham United, are tracking his progress in Spain.
Llorente, the Mirror claims, has a release clause of £45m.
Sanchez’s partner
Both Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen have contracts that expire in the summer.
It is not inconceivable to imagine that both players could leave the club and, if they do, Spurs will need a new defender to partner Davinson Sanchez, who Mauricio Pochettino reportedly plans to rebuild his defence around.
But, is Llorente good enough for such a responsibility and would he actually make a good partner for the Colombian international?
He has averaged 1.4 tackles per game in La Liga, per WhoScored, as well as 1.1 interceptions and 3.8 clearances, while also averaging a passing accuracy of 87.6%.
Sanchez, by comparison, averages 1.7 tackles, one interception and 3.3 clearances, with a passing accuracy of 88.4%.
Those are very similar numbers and there is not really a stand-out stat in that cluster from the Sociedad man to demonstrate a particular quality that would compliment Sanchez’s game.
Spurs have to seriously ask themselves the question as to whether Llorente can be that proper partner for Sanchez to help build the bedrock of a new defence and subsequently, the entire Tottenham team.
They have all season to continue scouting him and make that decision but, on first glance, the answer is not glaringly obvious and that should probably set off a few alarm bells.