Dembele available for £10m

The stories regarding Tottenham Hotspur and Napoli entering discussions for the transfer of Mousa Dembele would appear to have some substance if you look at his current position at Spurs.

Dembele has talent, there is no doubt about that at all, what he lacks is motivation though. A player who lacks motivation can not give you his best, he can give you the best he has available. but not the best he can produce. Motivation improves a player, it makes him more committed, it improves him, it sharpens him, it makes him more alert.

Dembele has been in his comfort zone at Spurs, not willing to improve himself or change his game. As a result he doesn't really fit the current system. In central midfield we have a holding midfield player, a link player whose job it is to move the ball quickly, especially if we are switching play and an attacking midfielder tasked with creating and scoring goals. Dembele doesn't fulfill any of those roles. He can play as a holding midfielder, but lacks the aerial ability, he prefers to dribble rather than pass and when he does pass it is too slow, the receiver has to wait for the ball to arrive. he doesn't score goals and doesn't create any either so Pochettino tried him out wide.

Dembele has admitted his lack of game time is down to him and he appeared to have tried to amend his game to suit a right sided attacking role. He is still a square peg in a round hole when playing there though and an injury has shown there are better options. If you were picking a best Spurs XI from all the players he wouldn't be in it, despite his talent.

He is not getting any younger, he turned 28 in August and has a contract until 2017 which means in the summer he will be entering the last year of his contract and his value goes down. If possible January is the time to sell and reports suggest we want £10-million for him.

Despite his talent and despite his improved mentality I would still sell him myself, I just don't see how he can change his game enough to be of value in our system. The money from his sale would help with the purchase of a more suitable player.

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