Tottenham can’t make Alfie Devine mistake as £4.5m gamble on cards
Tottenham Hotspur could consider selling Alfie Devine this summer.
The 21-year-old was in brilliant form on loan at Preston in the Championship, scoring eight and assisting six goals in the second tier.
The Deepdale outfit have a £4.5million buyout clause in his loan deal, and they intend to trigger it, according to Alan Nixon, via his Patreon.
The 17 May report states that Paul Heckingbottom’s side are trying to negotiate with Spurs over a payment structure that would see them pay over three or four years.
Tottenham should not sanction this for multiple reasons.
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Why Tottenham can’t sanction £4.5m Devine deal
Tottenham have an elite talent in Devine, and ultimately, he could reject the move despite the clause in the deal.
Spurs should offer him a path to the first-team to convince him to do so, as they could earn much more in the future if they intend to sell him.
The most important aspect as to why the Lilywhites must forget about the £4.5m profit is the terms that the Championship club are trying to negotiate.
That amount of money over that time span does very little for the North London side, and the gamble of selling Devine could come back to haunt them.
Devine must be handed first-team chance
Tottenham simply can’t allow Devine to depart, they must hand him a chance to impress Roberto De Zerbi.
Spurs have lacked creativity, ranking fourth lowest in the Premier League for expected goals with 43.24, with only Sunderland (40.81), Wolves (35.60) and Burnley (35.46) doing worse in that metric.
The young maestro would help solve that, creating nine big chances for his teammates this season, and averaging 1.2 key passes, per Sofascore.
| Devine’s stats this season | Championship |
| Matches | 45 |
| Goals | 8 |
| Assists | 6 |
| Shots averaged | 1.9 |
| Key passes | 1.2 |
| Dribble attempts completed | 57% |
| Lost possession | 10.9 |
They must put footballing matters over financial ones for once, and keep the Warrington-born gem around for the foreseeable future.
If they ultimately do not see a future for him, he would be worth much more with top-flight experience under his belt, anyway, rather than taking the first opportunity to sell.
While £4.5m looks good on the books, it will not look good if he goes on to star for a different team or make a big money move in the years to come.
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