Mauricio Pochetino is facing a battle to keep Kenyan International and Tottenham Hotspur defensive midfielder Victor Wanyama as suitors line up in the form of Italian giants AS Roma and Spanish top tier club Sevilla.
According to the British press Roma are flooded with money generated from the sales of Liverpool’s new signing Alisson and Radja Nainggolan who joined Inter Milan could help the Italian giants fund move for Wanyama who still has three years remaining on his contract. Sevilla on the other hand are looking for Wanyama’s services to replace French midfielder Stephen Nzonzi’s who is destined for a Sevilla exit.
The 27-year-old Harambee Stars captain missed almost four months of last season with a serious knee injury before making a comeback in the last half of of the season. The rustiness that comes with long injury layoffs were clearly evident at the initial stages of his comeback but ‘Big Vic’ soon found his level.
Mauricio Pochettino is said to be reluctant in parting ways with Wanyama especially with the rumoured departure of Ousmane Dembele looking ever likely.
Tottenham have overhauled their training facilities and are building a new stadium on the site of White Hart Lane at great expense.
Pochettino acknowledged the importance of investing in Spurs’ infrastructure, despite the projects leaving the club unable to match the transfer spending taking place at the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United.
“To compete at that level and challenge the big sides that have focused on improving their teams, while the reality for us has been improving our facilities, such as building the training ground and new stadium, I think it is not fair to compare us with these kind of clubs,” he said.
“We are competing in the same race but in a different way.”
Spurs are the only club in the Premier League not to reinforce their squad this summer, despite continued links with Manchester United forward Anthony Martial, Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish and Bournemouth’s Lewis Cook. Spurs finished fourth last season to claim the last Champions League spot for this coming season ahead of London rivals Chelsea and Arsenal who finished 5th and 6th respectively.
“Of course, football is all about adding more quality every season like our rivals are doing.If we cannot do that, we need to try to be creative and, of course, the help of younger players will be amazing and they showed they can help us if, in the end, we cannot sign players.” the Spurs manager said during a Pre season post match interview.
Wanyama made his debut for the Kenyan national team in May 2007, aged just 15 in a friendly against Nigeria. He also played in all six of Kenya’s 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. He became the captain of his national team in 2013.