According to various reports, Tottenham Hotspur are plotting a move in the region of 34 million pounds for Serie A midfielder Amadou Diawara. The 19-year-old Napoli player has a great admirer in Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino.
However, Napoli director Christian Guintoli isn’t interested in selling, according to Italian outlet Il Mattino, stating that the player in ‘unsellable’. Napoli are determined to keep him at the club beyond the January transfer window.
The Guinean defensive midfielder started his career at Italian lower league club, San Marino. After a string of promising performances there, Diawara moved to Bologna in 2015 aged 17 for £420,000 and made 34 league appearances in his season there. He had managed one assist that season. He made a switch to Napoli in August this year and has played four times in the league and twice in the Champions League.
Diawara likes to play in the central midfield position and has a knack of taking long shots on getting the slightest of spaces. His impressive ball interception qualities make him a promising defensive midfielder. In 184cm, the Guinean player could be a valuable addition in the future to the Premier League side as he is still to learn a lot like finding a good pass and using his physicality.
Diawara will have to compete with the likes of Victor Wanyama, Mousa Dembele, Eric Dier, and Dele Alli. The fact that Pochettino is still willing to bring the Guinean midfielder clearly indicates his intention of securing the future of that position. With Alli injured, Pochettino had to deploy Eriksen in the central attacking role. The anchor positions were taken by Wanyama and Dembele.
Dembele has been magnificent in the league so far and he still has a good three to four more years. It means Diawara will have intense competition if he aims to get into the first team. But, Tottenham are currently winless in their last 4 matches sitting in the fifth position in the Premier League table with 21 points from 11 games. Diawara could bring something new to a team that is out of ideas at the moment. However, he is too young to be moving to Premier league as his yet to prove his mettle at Napoli.
But we have seen many youngsters flourishing under Pochettino in Christian Eriksen, Dele Alli and Eric Dier and that’s one advantage of signing for the North Londoners. They rely a lot on younger players. The young squad is able to cope up to Pochettino’s demanding tactics and perhaps Diawara could be one of them.
