Paulinho to find form before the transfer window?

Corinthians sporting director Edu Gaspar is making all the right noises about former player Paulinho. Clearly Corinthians want him and they want him to know he is welcome back.



Having sold him for £17 million though he was initially saying they would like to take him back on loan. A loan move has very little benefit for Tottenham as when the loan period is over Tottenham then have a non-home grown player they have to pay the wages for until they can sell him, if they can sell him.

A club can only name and therefore use 17 non-home grown players aged over 21 in the Premier League so if we loaned out Paulinho and bought a replacement who was also not a home grown player, such as Wilfried Bony, then we would have too many in the squad to use, assuming we hadn't sold others. That would put us in a position of paying wages for an extra player, not something that would appeal to Daniel Levy and not a position we want to be putting ourselves in really..

"The doors are open for Paulinho, he is very popular here. If we compete with Inter, the financial part should not make a difference, I do not think that Inter is a competitor."

Paulinho has expressed a desire to look at Italy and there would certainly be clubs interested in him but whether at the price we would want for him, £17 million + is doubtful. His form has not been good, Tottenham could do with him regaining some enthusiasm.

He is yet another player who plays when he wants to, he plays when he is happy, when he is not he goes into his shell and goes through the motions in the same way Emmanuel Adebayor does. He looks at times as if he is deliberately not trying.

He has been used mainly in the UEFA Europa League. It is worth remembering that Harry Kane has forced himself into the Premier League team through his performances in the midweek games whereas Paulinho has forced himself to be substituted and used reluctantly almost.

Just like Kane he has now been given a couple of minor Premier League substitution appearances, it's up to him to produce the goods in the next UEFA Europa League group game, a tough away fixture against Turkish side Besiktas. If he does that then he may well get his chance in December to resurrect his Tottenham career.

There is no doubting he has ability but the mentality is everything and he has been lacking in that department. It would seem after the performance against Everton that a few of them have at last seen the light, that they will have to do as the coach asks or not play, they won't be forcing him out. We can only hope that Paulinho is one of those, we need all the players we can get firing, even if we are still to sell some of them in January.

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