Bryan Gil is already a full international for Spain nation team. (imago Images)
According to a report by Sky Italia (h/t Sky Sports), Tottenham Hotspur are ‘set to pay’ £21.6m for Sevilla winger, Bryan Gil. The deal would see 29-year-old winger, Erik Lamela, leave Spurs and join Los Nervionenses.
Gil, at 20, is in the starting stages of his career and has already been loaned out multiple times since coming through Sevilla’s youth system. After making an impression with the club’s B team – Sevilla Atletico in 2018, a temporary move to CD Leganes was finalized in 2020.
Last season, he was out on loan at SD Eibar and featured regularly for the La Liga outfit. The youngster is now bound for Tottenham. This deal would also bring an end to Lamela’s eight-year-stay at Spurs. So, is this a move that is worth the cost for Nuno Espirito Santo?
It only makes sense that Erik Lamela was included in a potential deal for Bryan Gil as a way of bringing down the transfer fee to some extent. If not that, it would have certainly sweetened the deal for Sevilla. And that is a good move by Spurs’ hierarchy because the situation surrounding the Argentine winger could have gotten complicated.
Lamela is in the final 12 months of his deal at Spurs. The Argentine signed a four-year-long extension in 2018, which means his contract expires in the summer of 2022. If Lamela did not extend his stay at N17, Spurs would have risked losing him on a free transfer next year as foreign clubs could have swooped in for Lamela in January 2022 and opened talks with him over a free transfer.
Offering him in a possible deal for Gil, thus, is a better option than seeing a player you paid £25.8mi for back in 2013, leave on a free. Moreover, it’s not like Spurs are losing a pinned first-team player in Lamela. In the last 5 seasons, the 29-year-old has managed to garner 10+ league starts in only one campaign. Last season, he only started 5 times in the league for the Lilywhites.
He has mostly been used as a substitute in recent years. In all fairness to the former AS Roma man, he hasn’t been helped by his injury issues at N17. But ruthlessness in the market is required from a team that wants to get back to playing UEFA Champions League football, and Lamela leaving the club should not be seen as a heavy jolt to the first-team set-up.
In Gil, they have a winger who is nine years younger than Lamela and is in the formative stages of his career. At 20, he has already garnered plenty of top-flight experience with Sevilla, Leganes, and Eibar. 54 La Liga appearances for three different Spanish teams makes him a youngster who is not alien to playing on the big stage.
And at his age, he still has a long way to go before reaching his peak years. Santo would have a player he can mould and there should be no pressure on any party to make Gil an outright starter from the moment he potentially comes in; considering his young age and Spurs’ option of playing Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura down that flank until Gil is ready for the step-up.
Luis Enrique, Spain’s national team coach who handed Gil his call-up to La Roja‘s senior side, praised the youngster’s shooting and crossing ability while also mentioning how he can use both his feet effectively (h/t football.london). Gil, who can play on either wing, would be a useful and youthful addition to a Spurs squad looking to achieve big things under their new boss.
