Tottenham should beat Arsenal to sign Mario Hermoso in January

According to the Sun, Arsenal are interested to sign Espanyol’s Spanish centre-back Mario Hermoso in January but the Gunners might face stiff competition for Real Madrid.

The 23-year-old was an academy graduate of Real Madrid and featured for the Los Blancos’ B and C teams earlier in his career before moving on to Espanyol.

However, as the Sun claims, Real Madrid have a buy-back clause for the centre-back which would allow the Spanish giants to take him back to the Bernabeu.

Hermoso has been in fine form for Espanyol this season in the La Liga, helping the club to five clean sheets in twelve outings. The highly-rated youngster is currently one of the best centre-backs in the La Liga and his stocks are likely to have soared even higher after his international debut for Spain last week.

Standing at just a shade over 6ft, Hermoso is not particularly tall for a centre-back but that does not stop him from dominating his offensive counterparts with his aerial prowess. He uses his physicality to outmuscle the opposition’s attackers and has the ability to time his jump to perfection to win the aerial duels, something that makes him a valuable asset to the team while defending corners and set-pieces.

To go with his physicality and aerial ability, Hermoso also has a sound technique and is extremely comfortable with the ball at his feet. In fact, he is a good passer of the ball, short and long, and has the ability to set up attacks from the back with accurate long balls. Even though he is not the best tackler at the back, he makes up for it with his superior positional sense.

To put things into perspective, Tottenham can strike gold if they can somehow beat their north London rivals to sign the Spanish defensive wall. Spurs have made a solid start to the season and Mauricio Pochettino’s men sit 4th in the standings with 27 points from 12 games.

Pochettino did not show much intent during the summer transfer window and chose to embark on the ongoing season with his current set of players. However, that decision has already come back to bite them as injuries to several of their key players have rendered the Lilywhites short of options.

As a matter of fact, Pochettino has had a tough time dealing with the long-term injury to Jan Vertonghen. Toby Alderweireld has not only missed a few games due to injuries but has also cost the team dear with his occasional blunders at the back.

Pochettino has been forced to rely on the inexperienced Juan Foyth to fill the void in the heart of the defence and that has proven to be a dangerous ploy.  As evident from his performance against Wolves where he gifted the opposition a couple of penalties late in the game, the Argentinian is anything but a finished product.

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Moreover, Alderweireld is likely to head for the exit door next summer, having refused to sign a contract extension earlier in the season.

That said, Spurs should not hesitate to splash the cash to beat their bitter rivals to sign Mario Hermoso as the Spaniard has all the qualities to propel the Lilywhites to a top-four finish this season.