Tottenham Hotspur are one of the teams pondering a move for Norwich City midfielder Todd Cantwell, according to reports…
What’s the word?
Football League World sources have claimed that Spurs are monitoring the 22-year-old playmaker ahead of a potential swoop this summer, while Premier League rivals Leicester City have also been named as possible suitors.
It’s thought that the Canaries are bracing themselves for bids over a number of their key stars, including Cantwell, though the north London outfit are wanting to avoid a bidding war over the England U21 international.
The Championship outfit do not want to sell either, but their hand may be forced should they fail to secure an instant return back to the top-flight.
Dele Alli 2.0?
Spurs are going to see first-hand how Cantwell performs over the next few months as they will also be looking at the progress of their on-loan midfielder, Oliver Skipp.
They have also had success in finding gems from the lower echelons of the Football League, more recently Ryan Sessegnon from Fulham, who has been touted for big things one day and of course, Dele Alli, who they prised from MK Dons for only £5m some six years ago.
Interestingly, Cantwell has been likened to the 24-year-old attacking midfielder after being dubbed the ‘East Anglian Alli’ by the Sportsman, who wrote: ‘There is also an element of Dele Alli to the way Cantwell plays, with the Norwich City man often breaking beyond the central striker.’
Perhaps a move for the Canaries’ talisman means they could seal their next Alli, especially as he’s been linked with an exit to Paris Saint-Germain in recent weeks, so his likely void will need to be fulfilled at some point.
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Cantwell’s former coach Gary Cockaday noticed his ability from a young age, he told The Athletic: “He did things every week that were just special. It was God-given. No one taught it.”
Indeed, the midfielder impressed in his first shot at the big time, even despite Norwich being relegated.
He recorded six goals and two assists from 37 appearances, and ranked joint-second for shots per game (1.1), behind only striker Teemu Pukki. He also did a lot off the ball, managing an average of 1.4 tackles per game, via WhoScored.
Cantwell even gave one of Spurs’ current players the run around that campaign. Despite the defeat, the Norwich sensation had the better of Matt Doherty in their game at Wolves. He was absolutely terrorised.
Per SofaScore, the Englishman was Daniel Farke’s second-best player (7.2 rating) and aside from beating the right wing-back to score, he also won five duels, made three tackles and had 55 touches. By comparison, the Irishman (6.6) managed to pick up a yellow card and won only 45% of his duels.
In the Championship this term, he has continued that remarkable form, ranking as the Canaries’ third-best player with a WhoScored rating of 7.04 – only bettered by Emi Buendia and Grant Hanley, who have both started double the number of games.
Four goal contributions in 11 starts are noble returns thus far and given he’s only 22, he looks primed to improve on that going forward.
Also dubbed one of the “most gifted” in the academy set-up from an early age by Darren Huckerby, the £15.3m-rated gem would evidently be a fine addition and a like-for-like heir to Alli.
It remains to be seen how much a young talent like Cantwell would command; reports in the summer suggested Norwich had an asking price in the region of £25m, which in this day and age is probably fair for an English diamond.
If Daniel Levy can afford to this summer, he’d be a wise man to sanction this move.
AND in other news, Why Jose Mourinho would LOVE reported Spurs target Mikkel Damgaard…