Sergio Reguilon - The transfer saga

Sergio Reguilon- The Spanish left-back who is adroit in going forward has put up one heck of a show on a season-long loan in Sevilla where he won UEFA Europa league with them. Reguilon has been playing for Real Madrid since the age of 8 where he was coached by Zidane. He broke into the first team in 2018 with their first-choice left-back Marcelo being injured and went on to play 22 games in all competition for Real Madrid. He went through a series of managers during that period and unable to impress Zidane who became the permanent manager once again. Zidane brought in Ferlin Mendy to compete with Marcelo which resulted in Reguilon playing on loan for Sevilla.

The modern-day full-backs are rated based on their attacking skills, On seeing Reguilon attacking stats, he has completed 1.6 dribbles per game last season and registered 1.3 key passes per game - fifth highest in La Liga. The fearless left-back bagged 5 assists in all competition and an assist in international colours. 

Reguilon was monitored by Sevilla and Manchester United for quite a while. Sevilla wanted the modern-day left-back on another season-long loan to play for them while Manchester United are determined to get him to sign a permanent deal. No matter who wants to buy Reguilon, Real Madrid were sure on one thing, they need a buy-back clause and pre-empition clause. Buy-back - A transfer fee will be decided between both the clubs that after two or three seasons playing for the club if Real Madrid wants Reguilon back they just have to pay the fee what was agreed at first no matter how much is his current transfer value. Pre-emption, if a club other than Real Madrid wants to buy Reguilon, the club should call and ask Real if they can match the bid. These two clauses were included by Real mainly because their first team left-back Marcelo might retire in a season or two. Real do not want to lose a prospect permanently. 

Reguilon is set to sign for Tottenham now, but what happened with Sevilla and Manchester United. Sevilla only wanted a loan so they were straight away rejected by Real, Manchester United were keen on Reguilon to strengthen their left-flank. Luke Shaw has put up a tremendous performance under Ole but he is quite injury prone which leave the manager to choose the young prospect from academy Brandom Williams. Though showing a decent performance for United, Williams is yet to fill the shoes of Luke Shaw. Ole is determined to bring in players for a long term project, not for a temporary replacement, the buy-back clause could see the player moving back to Real Madrid any time soon. Ole and the board were negotiating to remove the buy-back clause and also they were willing to pay lesser than Real Madrid's value for that player(30m).

Danny Rose left Tottenham after a quarrel with their new manager Jose Mourinho which left the team without a left-back where ben davies being injured. Jose asked Jan Vertrongen to play at the left-back until the recovery of Ben Davies. Tottenham was in search of defensive reinforcement, especially for their full-backs. Tottenham has signed Wolverhampton right wing-back Doherty for a reported 15 million pounds. Tottenham tried to acquire Manchester United's Donny van de Beek deal at the last moment, but the player was determined to join hands with united. Tottenham came in for Reguilon they were ready to accept Real Madrid's demand for both clauses and their asking price for the player, and they convinced Reguilon to join them.

How Jose will use Reguilon?

In the opening game week of the premier league, Tottenham suffered a defeat at their home ground against Carlo Ancelloti's Everton. Though Jose formed a 4-2-3-1 formation while defending their goal, on moving forward Doherthy moving up the right flank leaving a huge space behind him, to cover up the space Jose formed a 3 men defence with ben davies playing as Left Center Back when moving forward. while this may seem working well with Davies but a player like Reguilon might find hard to adapt as a left-sided centre back for a particular time on the pitch. when Reguilon joins the attack, Doherty would be asked to form a 3 men defence else the entire team would be exposed with a lot of space on the wing and it could be exploited when the lose their possession to the opposition and counter-attack might cost them a goal. Tottenham can use their Defensive midfielder to make a 3 men defence like united does.

Playing under Jose will surely improve the defensive side of Reguilon but what will happen to his attacking prowess. Can he bag more assist and goals under Jose than last season? Does Reguilon has the capacity to play every full game because Jose is a person who does not deploy a B team even against league 1 opponents. The transfer is completed and the player just has to pass the medicals and wear a white shirt and march on the white hart lane. 

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