London club Tottenham Hotspur has registered their interest in Bayer Leverkusen’s Hakan Calhanoglu. The attacking midfielder has been a player who has earned widespread acclaim for his dead ball skills. Tottenham have already brought in Vincent Janssen from Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in a bid to bolster his attack which the team desperately needed. Spurs do rely almost entirely on Harry Kane to score the goals and on Christian Eriksen to provide the creativity in the attacking areas. While the arrival of Janssen will ease the pressure on Kane, the arrival of Calhanoglu can make the team less reliant on their Danish playmaker although last season Dele Alli had a wonderful time and played brilliantly to help the team mount an unexpected title challenge.
Pochettino has raided Leverkusen in the past to bring in South Korean international Son Heung-Min for a fee of £22m last summer. Despite playing 42 times for the club and scoring 8 goals, the player has not been able to settle in fully. Calhanoglu would be a fantastic addition to the Tottenham squad. The 22-year old has proven his worth in Germany with Hamburger FC and later with Leverkusen with his exquisite free-kick technique catapulted him into a fan favourite in a short time.
The Turkey international has over the years shown remarkable consistency in his performances and most importantly has stepped up and stood out under pressure in Europe’s biggest stage. In his 14 Champions League appearances, the midfielder has directly contributed to 10 goals scored by his team with 4 goals scored and 6 assists. Spurs can certainly do with a player of that caliber, who would not only provide the experience and quality in their European fixtures but also provide fantastic competition along with depth to the attacking midfield position keeping the likes of Eriksen and Alli on their toes.
Even though he has openly admitted that he aims to stay at his current club and improve under the head coach Roger Schmidt. Leverkusen would be compelled to do business if an offer in the region of £25-28m is made for the player, however. Pochettino, still aims at bringing two or three new faces before the window is over and a deal for the set-piece specialist is looking increasingly likely at the moment. If Spurs are able to grab Calhanoglu then it would be another big step for their A
rgentine manager in assembling a team with enough quality and depth to challenge for trophies on all competitions they would be competing this season.
