Fernando Llorente decision

Fernando Llorente was wanted by Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Sevilla, Benfica, Galatasaray, Real Madrid and Porto, now that list seems to have shrunk to Spurs, Porto, Liverpool and West Ham, with his reported preferred destination Tottenham.



There are reports suggesting we are offering huge wages, giant wages, but, to be honest, they make no sense and are hardly likely to be accurate. It all depends on how you look at giant wages, but none of these stories detail any actual wage offer. A look at what he earns now tell us he wouldn't be getting a huge salary by Premier League standards or our standards.

At Juventus Llorente earns £3.16 million (US$4.95m - AUS$6.63m - €4.5m) per season which equates to £60,816-a-week (US$95,275 - AUS$127,522 - €86,538).

French side Monaco are reported to have offered to raise his wages to £3.51 million (US$5.5m - AUS$7.37m - €5m) however latest reports are that Monaco want to offload Portuguese midfielder João Moutinho also on £3.16 million because that is three times the wage cap they want to put in place. The stories don't match.

You would expect, bearing in mind his Juventus wage, that we would be offering him the same or slightly more but surely not over £70,000-a-week (US$109,504 - AUS$146,626 - €99,489), which is £3.64 million (US$5.69m - AUS$7.62m - €5.69m) per year.

For a 30-year-old (31 in February) we are not going to be going higher you would have to think. Because of his age future contracts for him would lower the wage unless he went to a cash-rich lower grade of football. What may be important to him is the length of any contract offer, he may want a four-year contract offer, we may want three or even less. We would want to recoup any fee we paid for him so if that is the case we would need to offer at least a three-year contract.

If he is a success none of this is a problem but if he isn't then we have a 30+ striker on £70,000-a-week who we will have problems shifting. He won't be like Emmanuel Adebayor, he will benefit the youngsters, he actively helps them as I reported previously, but he would be more in the Roberto Soldado situation, an excellent squad member helping others.

Signing any player is a risk and in most cases you try to eliminate as much risk as possible, however when you are buying potential the risks increase just as they do with buying an older player. We have to weigh up those risks, look at his scoring record, look at the types of systems he has played in, look to see how he has adapted to different situation, look at his off the field life, look at how he uses his experience, consider the fee and will we be able to recoup it if and when we sell him, look at the financial risks. Throw it all into the equation, list the positives and the negatives before weighing them up and reaching a decision.

Llorente scored 111 goals with 37 assists in 327 games for Athletic Bilbao before his free transfer to Juventus in July 2013, the summer we at Spurs tried to sign him before Soldado. Llorente then hit 27 goals with 10 assists in 90 games for the Italian champions. A look at minutes of Serie A playing time versus goals and he has scored a goal nearly every other game for Juventus, his playing time equates to 40.23 games.

At Athletic Bilbao he played a similar system to Pochettino under Marcelo Bielsa, he has married this summer, he uses his experience in a positive way to actively help youngsters, both on and off the field.

Tottenham are offering £6.49 million (US$10.04m - AUS$13.08m - €9m) but Juventus are insisting on £10.62 million (US$16.74m - AUS$21.79m - €15m) with several clubs chasing him.

Put yourself in our shoes. What would you list as his positives and negatives, then would you sign him or not if you would how much for and how long a contract would you offer?

Further Tottenham Reading
Spurs could/should be doing more with the loan system
Europe League is important for Tottenham
A further delve into the financial side of Tottenham