Reports: Adama Traore is the priority of signing for Tottenham in the last week of the transfer window

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Remember how Adama Traore dominated the Tottenham Hotspur Wolverhampton Wanderers match at Molineux yesterday, despite Tottenham retaining a 1-0 win? Well, if Fabio Paratici makes it through next week, he will be with Tottenham and not against them. Several reports including Athletic Law and Matt in the Telegraph have stated that Traore emerged as a priority to sign for Tottenham in the final week of the summer transfer window.

Law suggests that Tottenham are looking to take Traore on loan with a future commitment to buy, while others are hinting it could be a full buyout. The total cost of bringing him from wolves could eventually be around £40m.

One thing we do know about Nuno Espirito Santo’s time at Wolverhampton is that he loves Adama. You can understand why! When Traore is at his game, the dude is nearly unplayable. Traore clearly makes a great physical presence on the pitch and has been a very good executor of the ball on the wing for Wolves over the past two seasons. Knockout Traore has always been his end product, though you could make the argument that with high-quality finishing items around him like Son Heung-Min and (*cough*) Harry Kane, extravagance in front of goal might not be that impressive. Traore also has the ability to play as a broad midfielder and as an attacking-minded right-back.

There are two obvious questions to ask about Traore. The first is how Nuno expects to play with him on the side, which is weird! Lucas Moura and Bergwijn are still a thing. Combine that with the possibility of Kane returning to the squad, and you’ll either have Sonny fall back to take his usual position as a wide striker or a change of form to move Sonny to play alongside Kane in a 4-4-2. Either way, Lucas or Bergwijn are set to lose, unless Nuno sees Traore as the right-back.

The other question is why, and ironically it might be a little easier to answer. One thing we’ve seen so far this season is that Spurs have struggled to advance the ball through their midfield. With Nuno seemingly preferring not to play in the middle of the field, this lead was largely due to his wide midfielders, Lucas and to a lesser extent Bergwijn. What you can say about Adama is that he’s a good kicker on his side. And even if he doesn’t score goals, so far this season he’s been raising his output in xG.

So far this season, Adama has a 1.45 xG 10-shot. He had 2.05 xG all last season and a combined 5.88 over the past two seasons.

– Mike L. Goodman (@TheM_L_G) August 23, 2021

Finally, the possibility of Adama signing seems to suggest, at least to me, that Spurs are pretty confident they won’t sell Kane to Manchester City. Giving priority to a man like Traore probably won’t happen if you think you need to focus on bringing in a new No. 10 to replace the best striker in England you’ve sold to the richest club in world football.

I’m kinda torn on this. Adama is so much fun and there is a part of me that thinks about the possibility of Adama coming to Spurs and starts to smile like “Ha ha ha…yes!” guy from the sickos.jpg Mimi. Then there’s the other part of me who knows this is probably not the best use of our limited money, as there are still real holes on the side that can be addressed.

The possibility is either really exciting or very stupid. Not sure which one it is yet.

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