Mauricio Pochettino will ask Daniel Levy, the Tottenham Hotspur chairman, to make a new move for the Southampton forward Jay Rodriguez in the January transfer window.
That could open the door for Andros Townsend, the England international, to leave White Hart Lane, with Southampton still interested in the winger and West Ham United watching his situation carefully.
Pochettino made Rodriguez one of his primary targets after being made head coach at Spurs and wanted to sign him in the summer, despite the 25-year-old’s cruciate ligament injury. Southampton refused to sell the £15 million-rated Rodriguez or Morgan Schneiderlin to Tottenham in the summer window, but that will not stop Pochettino having another go to link up again with Rodriguez.
Southampton have made an incredible start to the Premier League season without Rodriguez, who is aiming to return from injury in mid-November. Southampton have surged to second in the table without him and the fact that his contract will have 18 months to run in January may soften Southampton’s stance.
Tottenham were interested in signing Danny Welbeck on loan from Manchester United in August, but did not make a permanent bid because of Pochettino’s desire to try again for Rodriguez. In their opening nine Premier League games, Spurs have scored 11 goals – fewer than Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion and Hull City. Rodriguez scored 17 goals for Southampton last season before his injury.
Signing Rodriguez would push Townsend further down the Spurs pecking order after the winger was left out of the match-day squad for the defeat against Newcastle United. Spurs refused to sell Townsend to Southampton once the St Mary’s club would not do business on Rodriguez or Schneiderlin, but the Saints have maintained their interest.
West Ham United, who will look to offload Matt Jarvis in January, are also admirers of Townsend, who is desperate to play regular first-team football. Despite playing in the Europa League, he has largely been rotated with Aaron Lennon on the substitutes bench for Premier League games.
Pochettino’s early policy has led to a feeling that there are certain ‘untouchables’ among his squad who will be guaranteed a Premier League start, no matter how they are performing. Record signing Érik Lamela scored an incredible goal in the Europa League last week, but his performances have still not been at the top level.
Christian Eriksen has also endured a dip in form, but has retained his place. Striker Harry Kane scored a hat-trick against Asteras Tripolis, but did not start against Newcastle – a decision that confused a number of players in Pochettino’s squad.
Other than juggling between Premier League and Europa League campaigns, the Argentine Pochettino must also be careful of cliques developing in his squad – particularly among the Spanish-speaking players. It is understood that Spurs’ South Americans, together with Roberto Soldado, are still speaking Spanish to each other at the club’s Enfield training ground, despite the club’s best efforts to improve their English.
Younès Kaboul, the Tottenham captain, repeated a familiar message for the squad to show more mental strength following the 2-1 defeat against Newcastle, in which Spurs threw away the lead by conceding just six seconds into the second half.
“We have to be braver and more focused,” Kaboul said. “At this level there is no mercy. If you’re not focused, brave and ready, you pay the price. We should not concede goals like that. If the opponent scores an unbelievable goal, you can’t say anything, but from where it started [from the kick-off] and where it ended, it’s not acceptable. Do we need more character in the squad? Maybe, yes. When you concede a goal straight away coming back on the pitch, you need to reply immediately. You need to send a big sign that we’re here, and say: ‘OK, you scored early and we’re going to reply to you straight away.’
“Have I spoken to the players? It’s hard in the heat of the moment. Sometimes you can say some wrong stuff. It’s better that you analyse it first on the video clips and then talk.
“We need to be more consistent and regular and more mature on the pitch. It’s about knowing how to control the game, kill the game, knowing how to defend all together in certain phases of the game, and for us to be more confident also.”
Over recent years Levy has demanded that the club challenge for Champions League qualification, but Kaboul hinted that the players had already given up on that goal.
“Of course we want to, but the most important thing for us this season is to finish as high as we can,” he said. “We want to improve and we work very hard, trust me, and we want to improve at any point.”
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