Stoke, Villa no chance of signing Dembele

Mousa Dembele is one of those frustrating players with the wrong mental attitude. He is happy just doing what he has always done and pick up a nice cheque. He has got to a nice level and doesn't need to push himself, despite the fact that he could be world class if he wanted.

Stoke, Villa no chance of signing Dembele


His game has not improved since he has been at Spurs and if you are not a player who continually wants to improve then you shouldn't be good enough for us. That is the attitude the club have to take if we are ever going to get to where we want to be.

The winter transfer window is a couple of weeks away and Dembele is now being linked with clubs at Spurs look to offload him. He is a very good player who can do someone a very good job, yet the clubs he is being linked with are not of the quality you would expect him to want to join.

Les Ferdinand said on ITV that when he was at Spurs they used to tell him he could play for Real Madrid, he has that potential. Why then would he want to go to Aston Villa in a swap deal for Fabian Delph or Stoke City?

It might be good business for us, it might be good business for Aston Villa, but it's hardly good for Mousa Dembele is it. It's a fact of modern football that their income level and therefore their potential is lower than ours, thus Tottenham should always finish above them, as wages basically determine football hierarchy these days.

Delph is out of contract in the summer so can only command a small fee but Dembele has a contract until 2017 so still commands a realistic fee.

Stoke City want Dembele with Mark Hughes being a big fan but again, why would he want to go there, what's in it for him? What can they offer? He wouldn't be playing the European football all international managers like their players to be playing so he'd be putting his international career at fisk. He'd have to take a wage cut as well you would think. Tottenham are often accused of going for players out of their range, well surely Dembele is out of range for both Villa and Stoke.

There will be other offers come in, Everton have previously been interested and there are a number of Italian sides who have wanted him in the past. I would utterly amazed if he ended up at Villa or Stoke so if we want Delph we'll have to come up with another option.

A player can change his mental approach, maybe Tottenham looking to sell him is the kick up the backside he needs to work for the team, instead of wanting to showcase his dribbling skill. Perhaps he'll say I want to stay, I'd better change. A Mousa Dembele with the right mental approach would be a huge asset but he doesn't have long to demonstrate it.