Tottenham line up £15m bid for PSV winger Memphis Depay

Posted Thursday, August 07, 2014 by theguardian.com

Mauricio Pochettino is considering a move for the £15m-rated Memphis Depay. The Tottenham Hotspur manager is looking for a fresh option on the flank and the PSV Eindhoven winger, who is one of the brightest talents in Holland, could provide it.

Tottenham line up £15m bid for PSV winger Memphis Depay
Memphis Depay celebrates scoring Holland’s second goal against Chile in the 2014 World Cup

The 20-year-old is coming off an eye-catching World Cup, in which he made an impact in Louis van Gaal’s Holland team who reached the semi-finals. He came off the substitutes’ bench to score in the group stage wins over Australia and Chile and, after coming on in the last-16 tie against Mexico, he started the quarter-final with Costa Rica.

Depay can work off either side but he is arguably best cutting in from the left where he can demonstrate the powerful shooting in his right foot. Mature for his age and physically strong, he is driven to reach the top. His PSV team-mates have grown used to the sight of him being one of the last to leave the training ground. Typically for players from the Eredivisie, he is technically very assured.

Phillip Cocu, the PSV manager, has urged Depay to stay at the club for another season, telling him that he has more to learn and he would benefit from showing patience. But Depayis a young man in a hurry and, having listened to his World Cup team-mates, he knows what is possible outside of the Eredivisie.

Depay earns around €300,000 (£240,000) a year at PSV, where he is contracted until 2017, and he could make substantially more at Tottenham. He has seen a handful of his international teammates make lucrative moves away from Holland this summer. Feyenoord have lost Daryl Janmaat, Stefan de Vrij and Bruno Martins Indi to Newcastle United, Lazio and Porto respectively while Siem de Jong, who did not play at the World Cup, has gone from Ajax to Newcastle. Michel Vorm has moved within the Premier League, from Swansea City to Tottenham.

Depay has spoken to Robin van Persie about the next step of his career and the Holland captain maintains that his move to England at a young age was the making of him. Van Persie joined Arsenal from Feyenoord as a 20-year-old.

Pochettino has already signed Ben Davies from Swansea, together with Vorm, plus Eric Dier from Sporting Lisbon. In addition to the winger, he wants another centre-half – he is chasing Villarreal’s Mateo Musacchio – and a defensive midfielder, with Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin the main target.