Spurs must finally cash in on “unwanted” ace who’s worth less than Dier

Tottenham Hotspur have made gains under Ange Postecoglou’s leadership, and perched in fifth place in the Premier League, a place in next season’s Champions League proper is now palpable.

That said, Saturday’s chastening 4-0 defeat on Tyneside issued a stark reminder of the canyon still placed between Spurs and success.

Aston Villa, fourth, picked up a huge 2-0 win at the Emirates Stadium against Arsenal on Sunday to send Tottenham further away from the top four, and, with the Gunners up next in the Premier League, Postecoglou will be desperate to find a solution.

Defensive issues were rife on Tyneside and while he’s been superb since signing from Wolfsburg for £43m last summer, Micky van de Ven suffered his worst performance at the club by a distance after a spate of costly errors.

Still, he’s a massive upgrade on the crop of last year, with Eric Dier certainly a level below his Dutch successor.

Eric Dier’s market value in 2024

Dier, aged 30, completed 365 matches for Tottenham across almost ten years, signing from Sporting Lisbon for £4m in 2014 and playing a large part throughout an exciting and successful phase of the club’s modern history.

But he was never the standout star in the backline and he endured a truly wretched 2022/23 campaign as Spurs conceded 63 goals in the Premier League and finished eighth – only Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest and relegated sides Leicester City, Leeds United and Southampton shipped more.

Dier, while starting 31 Premier League games last year, struggled to perform and was branded a “liability” by writer Mitch Fretton for his part in the struggle.

As such, despite signing for Bayern Munich in January after sitting miserably on the fringe under Postecoglou this season, Dier now has a market value of just £9m, according to Football Transfers.

Given that, at the height of his Tottenham career, his worth was marked at £35m, this is a bitter representation of a gradual decline in north London, but he’s still worth more than one current first-teamer who is surely heading for the exit door in several months.

Bryan Gil’s market value in 2024

The man in question is Bryan Gil, who Tottenham signed for a fee approaching £22m back in 2021 after a prodigious start to professional life in Spain.

A winger of immense talent, the 23-year-old has been said to possess a “left foot made of pure gold” by talent scout Jacek Kulig in the past but has been nothing more than disappointing since moving to N17, with Fretton noting that he is “unwanted” by Postecoglou.

Jamie Carragher even noted that he “looked like a boy playing in a man’s game” after Spurs’ Premier League fixture against Manchester City back in November, and having averaged only 0.3 key passes, 1.1 successful duels and 1.6 ball recoveries per match this term, as per Sofascore, it really is clear how far he has fallen.

And indeed, Gil is worth just £8m after several years of lacklustre performance. While Spurs are currently focussed on relieving the books of his signature at the moment, even believed to have received a formal proposal from Dutch Eredivisie champions Feyenoord, it’s hardly likely that Daniel Levy will collect a fee resembling the 2021 outlay for his services.

While he’s one of the Tottenham first-team’s lowest earners with a £40k-per-week salary, Gil has still chipped away at the coffers and has actually cost the outfit in excess of £27m, having contributed with just two assists and no goals across 42 fixtures.

Tottenham are improving under Postecoglou but must now axe this wage-draining player to ensure that the trajectory heads in the right direction.