Now things are starting to get serious. It’s already been reported that Tottenham had turned down two bids for Lucas Bergvall from Nottingham Forest. Now it appears that there are other suitors, named and unnamed, for the Swedish World Cup hunk. The Athletic’s David Orstein says Spurs have rejected a £46m offer from Newcastle for Lucas, and there are other clubs who are potentially offering even more.
Wow. We’re getting near the “stupid money” phase of this saga. Remember that Spurs paid £8m a couple of seasons ago for Bergvall; £50m represents more than a 600% return on investment. That’s a lot of cash. You see figures like this and start to wonder if interest in a player ever ends up at a too-good-not-to-sell level. I fear we’re reaching that point now.
On the other hand, Spurs are clearly reluctant to part ways with Bergvall, who in a year will reach homegrown and club-trained status. Should Spurs get back into European competition, those two traits are invaluable, and also probably why his price for English clubs has risen so steeply.
I’m starting to get the sense that Bergvall really does want to go. I can imagine the reasons why — being played out of position under garbage tactics in a bad team by Thomas Frank and then watching the new Spurs manager buy two senior players at his position(s) for £185m is probably pretty disheartening. Lucas could choose to keep his head down and fight for his spot for a season, but it’s pretty clear he wants regular first team football and is willing to go to the mat to get it.
We’ll see what happens.
