Tottenham Hotspur is likely to face a stumbling block in their pursuit of Ligue 1 midfielder Jean-Michael Seri as his price has reportedly been set at a staggering £33.5 million by his club Nice. The Lilywhites have been tracking the Ivory Coast international for quite some time now and Nice’s eye-catching displays this season has raked up Seri’s price in the market.
Seri is Nice’s dynamic engine at the centre of the field, who has been crucially involved in most of their productive movements. Though he has scored six goals and nine assists in 32 outings so far, his tireless work rate and high pressing make him an invaluable asset for the side. A central midfielder by nature, Seri is more defence-minded, which makes him an added cushion to the back line for Nice. And Pochettino is looking for someone with similar attributes.
The Argentine manager has mostly played with two formations this season; 4-2-3-1 and 3-4-2-1. Both of them are primarily designed to release the wing-backs when the team presses high. And with players like Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Ben Davies and Kieran Trippier, Tottenham are not short of attacking prowess. What, however, concerns Pochettino is the extra central defence that is needed when the setup shifts to a three-man defence.
This season, Victor Wanyama and Eric Dier have played it efficaciously in the league but on the European platform, the trick was a failure. Seri’s style of play would help Spurs tremendously as he can easily play as the centre-half as and when required. His solid presence at the back would allow Christian Eriksen to come in the middle and push Dele Alli forward alongside Kane.
Hence, this one position causes a huge change in the team’s productivity and Pochettino will look to beef it up next season. However, Spurs won’t have him easy with arch-rivals Arsenal also interested in landing the 25-year-old. Seri’s agent was even reportedly in London earlier in May to initiate talks about a potential move coming summer.
It is obvious that the French side don’t want to see their prized asset leave anytime soon, especially with Champions League on their sight next season. His price tag was known to be £17 million earlier this year and the sudden surge only indicates the club’s unwillingness.
If Nice have to sell him, they would like to squeeze out the maximum. They had bought Seri for a mere £850,000 from Portugal side Pacos de Ferreira in 2015.
