Why Tottenham should cut short Gedson Fernandes loan spell

According to claims from Portuguese outlet A Bola (h/t Football.London), Tottenham are planning to send on-loan midfielder Gedson Fernandes back to Benfica when the transfer window reopens in January. 

The 21-year-old joined the North London outfit on an 18-month loan deal back in January earlier this year but his temporary stint could be cut short by Jose Mourinho. As per the report, Tottenham have the option to sign Fernandes permanently for a fee of around €50million but that seems highly unlikely at the moment.

Profile

Gedson Fernandes joined Benfica’s youth system in 2008 and progressed to the reserve team in 2017 after making a positive impression across various age-group levels. He made his debut for Benfica’s B side in the Portuguese second-tier in 2016-17 and featured 31 times in the following campaign before being promoted to the first-team ahead of the 2018-19 season.

The 21-year-old came to be regarded as one of the brightest young talents in Portugal during his debut season, registering 3 goals and 6 assists in 46 appearances across all competitions. Fernandes struggled with injuries, however, during the first half of the 2019-20 campaign, making just 13 appearances in all competitions before completing a loan move to Tottenham in January.

The highly-rated box-to-box midfielder has represented Portugal across various levels between U-16 and U-21, while also earning two senior international caps for his nation.

Fernandes has struggled to make an impact at Tottenham

Touted widely as a player with the potential to shine at the highest level in Europe, Gedson Fernandes arrived at Tottenham amidst much fanfare in the winter window. Considering that he was one of the hottest young properties in the market back then, the Lilywhites seemed to have pulled off a real coup when they negotiated an 18-month loan deal for the midfielder.

The 21-year-old was a regular fixture in Mourinho’s matchday squads in the Premier League towards the back end of the previous campaign, making 7 substitute appearances for the bench.

Fernandes had been expected to kick-start his career at the English capital with regular game time this term, especially after Tottenham booked their seats in the qualifying rounds of the Europa League.

Surprisingly, though, Fernandes failed to make the matchday squads for any of the club’s three Europa League qualifiers. He has only made a solitary matchday squad appearance in the Premier League so far, albeit without entering the field of play. The youngster’s only appearance this season so far came in the penalty shootout win over Chelsea in the Carabao Cup.

Hence, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Mourinho has found it difficult to accommodate the midfielder in his first-team plans. A definitive judgement on whether Fernandes has really struggled to acclimatise to life in England is difficult to pass given that he has had very little game time over the last nine months or so. 

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Verdict

It looks highly unlikely that Gedson Fernandes will enjoy an upturn in his fortunes over the next few months, with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Tanguy Ndombele, Harry Winks, Moussa Sissoko, Giovanni Lo Celso, and Eric Dier all ahead of him in the pecking order.

Tottenham are pretty well-stocked in their central midfield options for the time being and the 21-year-old doesn’t seem like a massive upgrade on any of those players. Hence, Tottenham bringing a premature end to the talented midfielder’s loan spell would be an ideal settlement for all parties involved.