Marcus Edwards

[THFCSPURS19]

The very specific reason Spurs are considering transfer swoop for Marcus Edwards

Tottenham have long been linked with a move for their former academy product and this summer brings the most logical window to make a move

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Tottenham considering transfer swoop to re-sign former player for one very specific reason​

Tottenham have long been linked with a move for their former academy product and this summer brings the most logical window to make a move

Tottenham are monitoring the situation with Marcus Edwards this summer as they attempt to keep on top of their homegrown issues, football.london understands.

The 25-year-old left Spurs five years ago after being unable to match the undoubted potential that led then manager Mauricio Pochettino to say that he had traits that reminded him of Lionel Messi. After playing just 15 minutes for Tottenham in a League Cup tie against Gillingham, Edwards moved to the Portuguese league where after impressing for Vitoria he was snapped up by Sporting CP.


In Lisbon, Ruben Amorim helped develop the winger into one of the key attacking players in his exciting young squad. In his first full season at Sporting, Edwards provided 26 goal involvements in 51 matches, with 12 goals and 14 assists, including two goals and two assists in the Champions League. One of those goals came at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a 1-1 draw with his old side.

This season has brought six goals and nine assists in 44 matches as Sporting won the Primeira Liga title. Edwards suffered an illness around the turn of the year and then returned to find Francisco Trincao in a good run of form in his usual right wing slot in the second half of the season. That meant most of Edwards' appearances from January onwards came from the bench.


In one dramatic late cameo against Porto in April, he came on as a substitute in the 86th minute, grabbed an assist two minutes later to help Sporting come back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 but then was sent off in the 90th minute for going head to head with Porto's Brazilian winger Galeno.

Edwards has made no secret of his desire to return to England at some point and football.london understands that he would be happy to return to his old club. Spurs are believed to be among a number of Premier League clubs considering him as an option, with Crystal Palace another side reported in Portugal to have an interest.

There has been no concrete approach yet from Tottenham, but they are believed to be considering him as one of a number of further options for the winger roles in Ange Postecoglou's systems, after having extended Timo Werner's loan deal for another season.

Spurs do have a financial advantage when it comes to Edwards. When the north London club sold him to Vitoria, it was with a 50% sell-on clause and they decided to transfer that rather than cash in when he made the move to Sporting. Then when Spurs signed Pedro Porro on a permanent deal last summer, part of the negotiations with the Lisbon club included dropping the sell-on clause for Edwards down to 35%.

Sporting, with Amorim remaining at the helm, are not desperate to sell Edwards but with two years left on his contract are understood to value him at £15million (17.6million euros) before further add-ons that would lift that price tag slightly. With Spurs' 35% sell-on cut that would take the initial base figure to around £9.75million.

Another reason for any potential return of Edwards would be Tottenham's homegrown situation, particularly their lack of "club-trained" players for their upcoming Europa League squad. In European football, as a minimum, eight of a club's 25 squad places must be reserved exclusively for 'locally trained players' with four of them association-trained and four club-trained. Club-trained players are those who were on a club's books for three entire seasons or 36 months between the ages of 15 and 21.

With Harry Kane and Harry Winks' exits last summer, Tottenham's current senior club-trained players now only consist of Brandon Austin, Alfie Whiteman, Oliver Skipp, Troy Parrott and Japhet Tanganga. Austin has just signed a new contract but there are doubts over the future of the rest of that group with Tanganga and Parrott expected to be sold this summer, Skipp potentially loaned out and Whiteman's next steps are unclear after Austin's long new deal.

One answer to the lack of senior club trained players could be for the club to promote some of their young academy starlets into those spots, but that would be a waste of places because those young players are already registered on the additional B list for academy youngsters.

That is why Edwards could end being a useful option, although much could depend on what happens next with some of those club-trained players and also the more expensive, high profile wingers Tottenham will have their eye on this summer, with Athletic Bilbao's Nico Williams, RB Leipzig's Dani Olmo, Crystal Palace duo Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze, the latter able to play centrally and out wide, and Barcelona's Raphinha all among those linked to the north London outfit.

Edwards could be a cost-effective additional option on top of a high profile arrival who ticks a few boxes with a number of wingers set to leave Spurs this summer. As the window progresses and with other clubs interested in the player, Spurs will have to decide whether to bring him home or take the 35%.

 

[jpascavitz]

I totally get the argument for and against bringing Edwards back, but I will be rooting for him to succeed if he does.

Had no clue about his illness this year, but figured he'd gone off the boil. To be fair, 41 goal involvements in 95 games is a pretty good return for a winger.

If the quoted price from Gold in the article is true, it seems a good deal as well - just under 10m. Obviously my first choice would be someone in the Nico Williams category, but I really don't think I'd be displeased with a new ST and Edwards.

 

[Guntz]

Getting him for under £10m would be crazy cheap.

He shouldn't be our main winger signing though.

 

[Guntz]

Looking at the bottom of the article, it bodes well if these are our potential marquee signings.

Tottenham will have their eye on this summer, with Athletic Bilbao's Nico Williams, RB Leipzig's Dani Olmo, Crystal Palace duo Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze, the latter able to play centrally and out wide, and Barcelona's Raphinha all among those linked to the north London outfit.

I would be delighted with any of those.

 

[Frozen_Waffles]

So according to that article we are interested in him because of 3 reasons..

He used to play for us
He's homegrown
He's cheap

Trincao, a player who was very poor in the PL has taken his place, in his younger days there were question marks over his attitude and he is now 25.

I don't see the point of this at all.

 

[jpascavitz]

I would just add that I was watching a video of Edwards just now, and couldn't believe how many assists he could of have if players finished their chances. There was at least 5-7 in the video of great passes that weren't finished off..

I went to FBref right after and it shows against all attacking MF/Wingers:

Which seems to match up with the eye test.

 

[snakehipsspurs]

Signing Edwards as an attacking option off the bench opens up so much flexibility when it comes to going big with our marquee attacking/midfield signings.

It makes so much sense to me and I feel his strengths fit exactly with Ange’s requirements.

But more than anything, I’d love if a homegrown player came back and took the next step with us. Would be a fantastic story and let’s be real, we all wanted Marcus to be a star for us. I’m in!

 

[Styopa]

I like the idea in some ways, but if the logic is he’s cheap and home grown, then I don’t think that bodes well. We’ve already gone for the value WF loan option with Werner. Is another squad option really what we need now?

 

[Tucker]

So according to that article we are interested in him because of 3 reasons..

He used to play for us
He's homegrown
He's cheap

Trincao, a player who was very poor in the PL has taken his place, in his younger days there were question marks over his attitude and he is now 25.

I don't see the point of this at all.

It did make me chuckle, the headline was like the Spanish inquistion on Monty Python.

“Spurs will sign him for ONE simple reason….he used to play for them”
”And he’s home grown”
“Spurs will sign him for TWO simple reasons….he used to play for them, and he’s home grown!”
”And he’s cheap…”
“Spurs will sign him for THREE simple reasons….he used to play for them, and he’s home grown, and he’s cheap!”

Fwiw I think the article is typical Football London click bait bullshit. Surprised it passed the @THFCSPURS19 sniff test tbh.

 

[HildoSpur]

If he was not an ex-Spurs youth player would we even be interested?

 

[Hertsspur10]

So potentially:

Perisic out - werner in
Gil out - edwards in

1 'elite' winger/creative attacking player to be targeted for the first xi separately.

If that's how it plays out then I think I'm in.

 

[carpediem991]

So potentially:

Perisic out - werner in
Gil out - edwards in

1 'elite' winger to be targeted for the first xi separately.

If that's how it plays out then I think I'm in.

Do not see why we need Edwards or Edwards would be interested to join if a new starter, Johnson, Kulusevski, Son and Werner are ahead of him. (And probably also Solomon)

Save the money and put it towards a top CDM or Striker. We have Santiago, Moore or Donley for the 5th/6th winger position

 

[jpascavitz]

I like the idea in some ways, but if the logic is he’s cheap and home grown, then I don’t think that bodes well. We’ve already gone for the value WF loan option with Werner. Is another squad option really what we need now?

I'm trying to be realistic with my thinking here ATM and it might not allign with other's thinking. But I do think Ange likes Kulusevski and I would be happy if at the end of the Summer we have:

Son/Werner/Youth - ST Signing/Richy/Parrott or youth(or Son/Kulu) - Johnson/Kulu/Edwards
AM: Maddison/Kulu/Edwards/Youth
CM: New signing with Sarr, Bentancur, Bissouma

To me personally, that is still a really good versatile squad to push on. I'd be expecting players like Johnson to take the step up, and *hopefully* a cleaner bill of health for the season meaning we'll always have options on the bench. When Werner goes, again we'd look to spend big on a Son successor in the next few windows.

Back to Edwards, I think he bridges the gap between our exciting youth pipeline and I do think he'd be determined to prove himself back in England.

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

Loved Edwards in our academy and he’s recovered well to get to a good level.

I have some concerns though, biggest being over his attitude and how he’d cope being back in London. Second one would be is he going to raise the level of the starting 11 enough? If we didn’t already have Johnson, Edwards would be superb as a competition RW. I just worry we need a better player in that role immediately.

If he kicked on under Ange and fulfilled his potential then it could be an amazing move and obviously won’t cost much. It’s a risk in terms of us failing to improve the starting 11 though, even though it’s not a risk financially.

Stylistically I’d say he’s a good fit though, far better technically than any of our attackers and better on the ball.

Let’s have it right though, if we sign him we’re not getting another winger. Can we really say signing Werner and Edwards is us going for it and showing ambition?

 

[Frozen_Waffles]

It did make me chuckle, the headline was like the Spanish inquistion on Monty Python.

“Spurs will sign him for ONE simple reason….he used to play for them”
”And he’s home grown”
“Spurs will sign him for TWO simple reasons….he used to play for them, and he’s home grown!”
”And he’s cheap…”
“Spurs will sign him for THREE simple reasons….he used to play for them, and he’s home grown, and he’s cheap!”

Fwiw I think the article is typical Football London click bait bullshit. Surprised it passed the @THFCSPURS19 sniff test tbh.

It's from Alisdair Gold, so that's got to be fine.

The only thing that surprised me is he didn't go off on one of his tangents. I was expecting something more like this...

Spurs are interested in former player Edwards currently playing in Lisbon, I went there a few years ago, a lovely place, there is a great cinema there where I watched Dune. By the way I have a cold at the moment, picked up a bug, felt ill, slight headache. Anyway, back to what your here for. If you haven't seen Dune yet, let me tell you, great film, it starts on a planet called Arakis....

 

[Joshua]

So according to that article we are interested in him because of 3 reasons..

He used to play for us
He's homegrown
He's cheap

Trincao, a player who was very poor in the PL has taken his place, in his younger days there were question marks over his attitude and he is now 25.

I don't see the point of this at all.

We only have a small amount of club trained players ahead of next seasons Europa Campaign, with a number of them likely moving on. We need more club trained players and Edwards and KWP are the only real options out there that we could bring back who could also offer something to the squad.

 

[danny32]

Get Gil out and Edwards in for zero cost i'm in.
Helps the club trained situation and at least Edwards goes at defenders unlike Gil.

 

[bbunc]

If you told me the path to being able to sign an Eze/Olise/Baena type AM, a top class striker, and an Ederson level DM was to bite the bullet and sign Edwards as a right winger, then I think you do it.

 

[rossdapep]

Think I'd be fine with it had we not signed Werner because Edwards could take Solomon or Gil's role.

But with Werner and Edward's we'd have

Werner
Edwards
Deki
Johnson
Son

All vying for 2 spots.

Can't see a bigger purchase coming in at that position.

Only really makes sense if we are bringing in both someone like Eze/Baena and Sesko/Gyokeres and giving the likes of Moore a better route.

I think the alternative is we sign a big winger and CF and don't go in for someone like Eze/Baena

 

[tubbygold]

Signing Edwards as an attacking option off the bench opens up so much flexibility when it comes to going big with our marquee attacking/midfield signings.

It makes so much sense to me and I feel his strengths fit exactly with Ange’s requirements.

But more than anything, I’d love if a homegrown player came back and took the next step with us. Would be a fantastic story and let’s be real, we all wanted Marcus to be a star for us. I’m in!

Getting very confused as to our transfer plans in attack this summer.

Seems to depend a lot on where/if they see Kulu playing next season. Cause I hope it’s not on either wing, where he’s so ineffective.

If we do get Edwards, we then have two wingers for both sides + Kulu. Do we then have space for one more?