Tottenham Hotspur may get one over their arch-rivals Arsenal even before the Premier League season begins by signing a player that the Gunners are keen on adding to their ranks, Danish centre back Joachim Andersen, as per Daily Star. Arsenal manager Unai Emery wants to sign the centre back from Sampdoria, but the price tag of £31.2 million is out of the Gunners’ reach.
As a result, Spurs have been offered the opportunity to sign the player and the Lilywhites could swoop in and sign the 23-year-old defender, who is seen as a like-for-like replacement for Toby Alderweireld, who could leave the English club in the summer. The report states that Arsenal’s combined bid for Andersen and his Sampdoria teammate Dennis Praet was rejected by the Italian club.
Andersen had a good 2018-19 campaign with Sampdoria where he became an integral part of the Italian team, helping his side to a 9th place finish in Serie A. The Danish central defender played 34 games in all competitions in the recently concluded season. Andersen moved to Sampdoria from Dutch club Twente at the start of the 2017-18 season for a fee of around €1.4 million.
His contract at Sampdoria expires in 2022 with the player having signed an extension last year. He is yet to make his national team debut but has played for Denmark’s junior teams.
Should Tottenham Hotspur take the offer to sign him?
Tottenham will have to add more players in the summer to compete with their rivals in the Premier League, as they showed last season that they don’t have depth in their squad, while potential exits of a few players will also require them to sign new players. Andersen could add strength to the Spurs central defence, which will most likely see the exit of Toby Alderweireld.
Andersen is a young defender with a lot of potential who likes the ball at his feet and move the ball from the back. A solid ball-playing defender, the 6’4″ defender is a good passer of the ball who completed 88.8% of all his passes in the last Serie A season, while averaging 63.4 passes a game (stats courtesy: Whoscored).
The Danish defender is a player who will fit perfectly in Mauricio Pochettino’s style of play and could form a formidable central defensive partnership with another young defender, Davinson Sánchez in the long-term. In the more immediate future, as we have seen Pochettino opt to play 3-at the back, a trio of Andersen, Sanchez and Vertonghen will also make Spurs’ defence one of the best in the league.
