It was well reported in the summer that Tottenham Hotspur were interested in LOSC Lille’s Canadian forward Jonathan David, although nothing ever came of any links, with the club opting to sign Dominic Solanke from AFC Bournemouth instead.
Despite the signing of Solanke, reports out of Italy have suggested that Fabio Paratici is working behind the scenes to try and help bring David to Spurs. With his contract situation, there is no wonder that there is still interest – even after signing a centre-forward in the summer.
There has now been a further development, with Lille president Olivier Letang telling French publication After Foot RMC: “Jonathan David will not leave in January. We made [a] new contract proposal, and it’s up to Jonathan now.”
Rumoured Spurs target set to be available on a free transfer
Based on previous reports of David wanting to run his contract down at the French side, everything points to the striker being available on a free in the summer of 2025. This could seriously open the door for Spurs, or of course other clubs, to make a move.
As respectable as his numbers were last season, you simply cannot rely on Richarlison’s fitness, and the workload on Solanke this season has already been tough. You can be pretty confident that the club will be in the market for a forward next summer.
Furthermore, David has played 87 career games as a second striker or attacking midfielder, meaning there is the possibility of the Canadian forward and Solanke co-existing in the same side. He has also played a handful of games out wide.
So far this season, the 24-year old has put up seriously impressive numbers. In just 269 UEFA Champions League minutes, David has scored four goals, as well as scoring seven goals in 822 Ligue 1 minutes so far this term. His goal against Suriname earlier this week helped send Canada to the CONCACAF nations league semi finals.
There has also been plenty of interest in David’s club team mate Angel Gomes, who also has an expiring contract in the summer of 2025. From January onwards, both players will be allowed to speak to other clubs with the view to potentially signing a pre-contract agreement. Recent talk has suggested Gomes could be a target in January.
That said, we know how stingy the club can be, so the idea of bringing in players on a free will surely appeal to them. Yet in this case, it would also be bringing in players of quality that could raise the level of the side.
MORE TOTTENHAM NEWS
Tottenham Hotspur will be eager to get back to winning ways on their return to Premier League action this weekend.
With the final international break of 2024 finally out of the way, Spurs can fully focus on getting their up-and-down campaign fully on track.
Tottenham have shown they can comprehensively beat anyone on their day, but they have also been prone to some shock defeats.
One criticism that has been levied towards Ange Postecoglou is regarding his insistence in playing a high line, which has led to opponents catching Spurs out at times.
For instance, Ian Wright recently lamented Tottenham’s loss to Ipswich.
He said: “When they are in a good run and you think they can put more results together, they throw a performance like this out there.”
Wright, along with Roy Keane, Paul Scholes, Gary Neville and Jill Scott, spoke about Tottenham in the latest episode of The Overlap.
Keane defended Postecoglou as he shared what he noticed about the Tottenham manager while he was still at Celtic.
Roy Keane says Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou was already uncompromising about his style of play while at Celtic
Keane suggested that Spurs would – or should – have known what to expect from Postecoglou with regards to his style of play.
The former Celtic midfielder said Postecoglou made it clear in his pre-match and post-match interviews at Parkhead that he had no plans to ever change his style.
“If you look at the manager, yeah of course you have to be flexible and change ways of playing,” began Keane. “But his way of playing has got him to the Spurs job.
You look at his CV, if you look at when he was up at Celtic, obviously winning the games most weeks…
When they played European games, when they played some big teams, I saw his interviews and he said ‘I’m not changing’.
“And that was then when they’re playing really good teams, so that’s it, that’s part of his strength – maybe a bit of a weakness.”
Scholes then asked Keane whether he thought Postecoglou should change his style now he’s in the Premier League, to which the Irishman replied: “I suppose so, yeah.”
What Postecoglou said about his style of play when Celtic faced Real Madrid
Even when faced against the mighty Real Madrid in the 2022/23 Champions League campaign, Postecoglou made it clear he was not going to change his style of play.
“There’s no point playing football a certain way,” he told reporters ahead of Celtic’s home game against Los Blancos in September 2022.
“But when you get an opportunity to measure it against the very best, you shy away from it and kind of go: ‘You know what, let’s just try and limit any sort of damage.’
“That’s not really a test because you don’t know. You could go out there and limit the damage and you might get a win playing a different way, but have you really tested yourself? I don’t think you have.
When I say test ourselves, that’s what I mean, we go out there being the football team we have been to this point. Then you have got a real measure of where we are at.
“If we are short of where we need to be, then we go back, dust ourselves off and get a bit closer next time.
“I have always taken these games as an opportunity to really stamp your own identity on a game and see where it takes you.”
Celtic lost 3-0 to Real Madrid at Parkhead before falling to a 5-1 defeat at the Bernabeu in November.
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