Pritchard for sale, he is leaving Spurs this summer

TRANSFER TALK

Pritchard to lave this summer

It would seem Alex Pritchard will be allowed to leave, which may be unfortunate for him, given his desire to make it at Tottenham, but Mauricio Pochettino does not allow passengers and Tottenham are not a players charity.

To say it again football is a ruthless business and if we are to be a top team challenging for trophies then sentiment has no place in squad selection. You either produce the goods on the training ground and thus get yourself picked or you are shown the door.

Clinton Njie hasn't produced enough in training, where Pochettino sees him every day. Federico Fazio knows he has no future and must find another club, which appears to be Espanyol at the moment.

Pritchard has missed out, he needed to be playing last season because now we have gone up a level of football (Europa League to Champions League) and we have a top four position to maintain. That means less time for experimentation, less time to give players a chance as fans put it. He is 23 now and hasn't established himself in the Premier League yet, the clock is ticking.

Few seem to consider what he can do off the ball, of all the comments I have read about him, not one talks about what he does defensively. The word from Brentford fans was that he was great on the ball but poor off it. Juan Mata was sold by Mourinho because he didn't do enough off the ball and Pochettino will see what he does every day in training to tell whether he can perform the 'ugly' side in addition to going forward.

The squad has to be considered, we are only allowed 25 players with 17 non-home grown players and Pritchard is at an age where he has to be named in the 25. The young squad to tour Australia has been announced with none of the England players in it yet there is no room for Pritchard, that speaks volumes, he has no future at The Lane.

Pritchard, I believe, accepts that he needs to leave to play football regularly and Newcastle United are definitely interested, the £8-million (€9.59m - AUS$14.10m - US$10.57m) it is believed we are asking is putting them off at the moment though. Middlesbrough and Swansea City are also interested in him while Italians Napoli have been linked this summer as well.

He simply isn't going to find enough playing time at Tottenham so a move is best for all parties.