Should Tottenham take Angel Di Maria, Fabio Coentrao and cash for Gareth Bale?

Gareth Bale

Reports in England suggest that Real Madrid have stepped things up a notch in their pursuit of Gareth Bale. Having had an offer of £81m rejected, they are supposed to have come back to them with a second offer, and a mind blowing one at that. This new offer is reported as being £51m plus Angel Di Maria and Fabio Coentrao. With Di Maria’s value being £25-30m and Coentrao something like £15-20m it means that Real are essentially offering at least £90m for Bale in cash and assets. So, should Spurs accept that offer? Or should they refuse to sell regardless. I’m going to look at both sides.

Yes

This is the only kind of offer that makes sense for Spurs to accept for Bale. They have a weakness at left back and Coentrao would be a huge upgrade on the incumbents. He would bring width and pace in attack and increasing defensive maturity. If he has the responsible Lewis Holty in front of him or even Di Maria, he will get good assistance.

Spurs seem to be transitioning towards Andre Villas-Boas’ default 4-3-3 system this season and that requires width and overlapping from both full backs. Coentrao is ideal for this and opposite Kyle Walker would make for an electrically quick combination on opposite flanks, allowing the wide forwards to cut inside and shoot or cross.

One of the new wide forwards would be Di Maria. He is often the unsung hero at Real Madrid, his exploits fading behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Mesut Ozil in terms of headline making but he has proven himself to be a consistent goal scorer and goal provider whilst in Madrid. He would be able to play as an inverted winger, a left footed right winger, which AVB used to great success at Porto with Hulk and at times last year with Bale himself. He has an excellent shot on him and is able to create opportunities.

These two players are used to winning big games and being part of big time competition, and that is important to taking Spurs to the next level. Spurs have talent certainly, but not many of the squad are experienced big competition winners and not many have a lot of Champions League experience. Coentrao and Di Maria have plenty of that and will be coming from a Jose Mourinho dressing room intent on winning. AVB was a Jose Mourinho pupil and expects similar high standards of commitment, education and tactical understanding, so both players would be able to easily adapt, and soon lead the Spurs dressing room in Bale’s absence.

Realistically, even if Spurs had a huge wedge of cash there is only so much damage they can do with it this late in the transfer window. Although there are still some very desirable players around, getting quality like Coentrao and Di Maria would not come cheap. Having two players parachuted in to an already good squad, with cash to spare, makes sense for Spurs.

There is also the extra cash on top of these players and although the presence of quality players in positions of need is what makes the deal work, having an extra £50m to spend isn’t to be sniffed at. Even if most of this would perhaps be spoken for with the expected £26m signing of Roberto Soldado, there would still be plenty left over. £24m would be enough to sign Ajax’s Christian Eriksen for example, or they could look at the central defence with a move for Schalke’s Kyrgiakos Papadopolous.

Eriksen would offer more attacking guile, creativity and goal threat to compensate for the loss of Bale. He has a wonderous array of passing available to him and as he has matured he is starting to pick the killer ball more often than the showy one. Last season he scored goals too and is a calm and composed finisher. Papadopoulos is one of the top young central defensive prospects in the world and looks an ideal partner for Jan Vertonghen. Like Michael Dawson, Papadopoulos is a tremendous leader, big, physical and aerially dominant, but what he also has that Dawson lacks is pace. Plugging him in next to the silky Belgian with Coentrao and Walker either side and Lloris behind them suddenly looks like the best defensive five in the league.

Although the loss of Bale, the club’s real X-factor and match winner as he showed time and again last season, would be bad, getting three top class elite level players in return would improve the team overall. The straight up cash doesn’t, because players of Di Maria and Coentrao’s quality probably aren’t affordable or for sale at a reasonable price, but if they came in exchange along with cash, Spurs would be able to take themselves over the top and in to the Champions League spots.

Angel Di Maria

Selling Bale is selling the best player in the Premier League. He scored 31 goals in all competitions last season, which would outgun most top strikers, and he did it from a variety of positions, often from out wide. Spurs’ best form came when AVB moved Bale centrally and he was able to use his pace and direct running for most devastating impact. In these central areas he was able to score more goals and cause more chaos.

His positioning, off the ball running and mostly noticeably, finishing have all improved rapidly under the tutelage of Villas-Boas who is one of the top coaching managers in the world. He has taken Bale from very good, to a player Real Madrid have made a world record bid for. The question for Bale is, would he be able to continue this level of improvement at Real where he would be second in command to the omnipotent Ronaldo.

At Spurs, he is the unquestioned main man, their key player. Time and again last season he morphed in to ‘SuperBale’ swooping in to rescue victories for Spurs which kept them in contention for the top four in the first place. Even with other quality players in the team it was still Bale that the opposition feared. Quieten Bale and you quieten Spurs. He loved the role of the hero and thrived on it, able to produce magic in unlikely moments. See his inspirational showing in the win at Old Trafford or the late show at West Ham. Without him, they wouldn’t have been close to Arsenal last season.

Although Di Maria is a classy player, capable of scoring wonderful goals or moments of stunning skill, he doesn’t have the game breaking ability that Bale does. Although he is a seriously high quality player, he is best when he is one of a number of threats, rather than as the shining light. He hasn’t yet shown that he can consistently win games on his own.

Although he is an excellet player, and excellent complimentary piece, his game is raised by other quality players and doesn’t have the Bale-esque fizzle to make something from nothing. The argument against Coentrao swinging this deal, is that Spurs have three first team claibre left backs in Rose, Naughton and Assou-Ekotto and that although Coentrao is an upgrade, is it worth losing one of the three most dangerous attacking players in the world in order to upgrade at left back? Certainly the role is important in modern football, but important enough for it to be the seal on the deal? It doesn’t seem so.

The £50m would of course be useful, but with £26m of it possibly already accounted for on Soldado, and not to mention payments to be made on the new stadium under construction, it’s debatable as to how much of it will actually be made available for new signings. If none of it was to be made available, and the new stadium isn’t going to come cheap so it’s no guarantee that much of it will, then this is essentially a swap of Bale for Di Maria and Coentrao. An inferior forward and a player in a position of marginal value. It’s certainly something to ponder over.

Summary

This is a harder decision for Spurs than it might seem to be. Although they were right to reject the stright cash offer, this makes a lot of sense. However, that is assuming that the extra cash is going to be spent on quality, rather than vanishing. Although Di Maria and Coentrao are top class players, Spurs are probably about as good as they’d be with Bale in the team overall, so it’s a sideways step. However, if they can then sign a top class central defender along with Soldado or even another wide forward as well, then they may have to pull the trigger. Of course, that is if the offer actually exists!