Tottenham Hotspur will reportedly activate a clause from Erik Lamela’s contract which would extend the Argentinian’s stay for another season at North London beyond the 2018/19 one. Reports about a possible transfer have flooded in over the past few weeks but the Spurs aim to end all rumours by doing the needful.
The 26-year-old will be putting on the White jersey come August and Tottenham will have a 2-season window into convincing him to sign a new long-term deal. This is a massive boost to Mauricio Pochettino’s squad as Lamela proved himself to quite an impactful role player this season.
Coming off a 13-month injury is never an easy task and yet Lamela has succeeded with 29 appearances this season, 10 of them in the starting XI. He even played one game for the U23 squad to brush off the dust that had settled into his boots.
Readjusting to life in England’s top-flight was challenging especially with in-form starters like Heung-min Son, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli in the squad. The arrival of Lucas Moura in the January window certainly did not help but eventually proved to everyone about the Argentine’s capabilities.
Lamela impressed with a goal and an assist in the 3-0 win over Swansea City in the FA Cup Quarter Finals and has racked up 8 goals and assists in total. He got to feature in the UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals against Juventus as well even though his side ended up losing 4-3 on aggregate.
13 months back his career was hanging on the edges of a hospital bed and now it looks better than ever. The midfielder is fit and able in Pochettino’s squad and is proving to an exceptional rotational option.
The manager learned the importance of that the hard way this season when his team started dropping crucial points midway through the Premier League campaign. While the Spurs impressed in the European stage by overtaking Real Madrid to the top of the group stages, they started to either lose or draw against teams like Swansea City, Watford and West Brom.
A title-challenging side always needs a fully stacked squad to handle the challenges of multiple competitions within a regular season. Even Pep Guardiola was forced to admit that winning major honours were impossible without a team full of quality players.
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Lamela is one of those versatile attackers who can appear either from the flanks or from central positions and wreak havoc with the ball under his feet. Keeping him is certainly the right approach made by Spurs in what could be a highly lucrative 2018/19 season.
