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Keita interest, sums and stats


TRANSFER TALK


Tottenham, Liverpool, Manchester City, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, Monaco and a host of other clubs are monitoring 22-year-old (23 in February) Naby Keita, the RB Leipzig central midfielder who has been a revelation in the Bundesliga this season.

The Guinean isn't a player I have covered before so thought it was about time I looked into one of our reported transfer targets. He has been in the news a lot and been compared to the impressive N'Golo Kante.

Keita joined Red Bull Leipzig, who were only promoted to the Bundesliga last season and sit second in the table, from FC Red Bull Salzburg, an Austrian club, based in Wals-Siezenheim. He cost them £12.71 million (€15m - AUS$21m - US$15.94m) on 1 July 2016 and the fleet-footed youngster has since impressed everyone catching the eye of bigger clubs.

Reading his quotes (Bundesliga), he seems to have the mentality that we need at Tottenham, that of players who want to improve every day, a winning mentality.

“I don’t know what my future holds, but I want to keep improving. I see my life and career as a ladder that I want to climb rung by rung. 
“Right now I’m a relatively small, unimportant footballer, but I want to grow and experience success. I dream of being the best player in Africa, and one day the world. Messi is the best footballer on the planet right now, and I’d like to experience similar successes to him.”

Wel,l you can't fault his ambition!

I have read some reports suggesting a valuation (a journalists valuation no doubt) of £25.41 million (€30m - AUS$41.99m - US$31.87m) seems low, I'd say it seems high, despite the current market. Having said that, he is under contract until 2020 with 8 goals and 8 assists from 26 Bundesliga games. 

Transfermarkt, who use the same algorithm for all players have him valued at £18.70 million (€22.07m - AUS$30.91m - US$23.46m) which seems nearer the mark for me.

His shoe manufacturer is once again Nike. Perhaps Nike are wanting a Spurs XI all wearing Nike boots, hope not, Dele is with Adidas.

Talking of Dele, he is banned from our first three UEFA Champions League games next season, assuming we qualify, which is half the group stages. We could do with another midfielder who can make runs into the box in his absence and 4 of Keita's goals have come from inside the box.

Harry Winks will be competing with Mousa Dembele for a spot, Keita can play there or further forward giving Pochettino the options he looks for in players. This season he has played both as a defensive midfielder and an attacking midfielder.

Like many a modern-day player he is reported to be weak in the air, midfield players are all about the ball on the floor these days. He is an excellent dribbler and can pick a pass which allied to his energy make him suited to our style of play it would seem.

Naby Keita Stats
26 games
1,798 minutes
1,008 passes
69% forward passes (Dembele 57%)
79& pass completion (Dembele 92%)
30 key passes
73 take-ons (66.3% - Dembele83.54%) 37 tackles won (42.5%)
44.*% shots from outside the box
43% shot accuracy
8 goals 8 assists

His agent, same as Saido Mane, isn't going to be short of offers to weigh up, we are just one of them, but we are now known for playing young talent.

3 comments

  1. How is that valuation too high? RB Leipzig have plenty of money and just bought him for nearly the valuation that you feel is right just last year and all he has done since then is further sky rocket up the charts.

    RB Leipzig are similar to Monaco, they will develop young talent and sell it, but only if you meet the valuation which is bound to be incredibly high especially for a talent like Keita.

    This article is like a Real Madrid fan thinking a valuation of around 30mil for Dele Alli seems more fair.
    • The author's reasons for believing it's too high are laid out in the article. Just below where he makes the claim. You may not agree with his thinking, but it makes little sense to ask a question that's already answered for all to see.

      COYS!!
  2. Yes much as everyone drools over Son, if he could actually head the ball AND understood offside, he would be 100% a better player. I am yet to see an Asian football, not a 2M CD giant capable of heading the ball. I have no idea why as some short footballers can leap very high and manage to head the ball still. Keita would our Dele backup but we still need that creative AMC Erikson "prodder", that 3rd striker and perhaps another CD. In addition Davies has been singled out by not a few as our weakest link and yet he can be a very good CD, so perhaps we still need that young LB with Davies dropping to C or LCD & LB backup. Naturally , all IMHO