Spurs one of three clubs in position for defender | OneFootball

According to a report from L'Equipe, Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa, and Galatasaray have all positioned themselves to sign Paris Saint Germain central defender Milan Skriniar this month, with the defender expected to choose his next club in the next few days.

Spurs one of the three clubs after PSG central defender

Spurs have been linked to the Slovakian defender since last month, amidst their defensive injury crisis that has seen all of Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Ben Davies miss the last month of action, as available central defender Radu Dragusin continues to struggle with playing in this type of system.

Many fans will remember the summer of 2020, during Jose Mourinho's time at the club, where they were heavily linked with Skriniar, then at Inter Milan, but would not pay the money Inter wanted, and signed Joe Rodon as a cheap alternative instead. At the time, the defender was out of favour at the Italian giants, but got his way back into the team, and helped his side to their first league title in over a decade.

In 2023, the defender would eventually leave, as he joined French side PSG on a free transfer. After being in and out of the team in his first year in the French capital, he has found it increasingly hard to get game time this season, and has not featured for Luis Enrique's side since a 3-0 win over Toulouse back in November.

So, it is clear that he needs to leave for the sake of his own career. Does he fit in at Spurs, however? When the club wanted him back in 2020, it was to play in a Mourinho deep block, defending his own penalty area, heading and kicking the ball, etc. The complete opposite of what is required to play in the current high octane system under Ange Postecoglu.

Whilst the 29-year old is a good defender, with good defensive fundamentals, he is not the most mobile of players. The reason he was briefly out of favour at Inter as touched on above, is because Antonio Conte did not think he had the required mobility to play as a wide centre-back. Whilst he did eventually get back into the side, to play on the halfway line at Spurs in the Premier League does feel even harder than that.

With respect, when a player is linked with a move to the Turkish league as well as the Premier League, that can mean the writing is on the wall in terms of the level the player is currently at. Good player, and would be better than not signing anyone - but it does for sure feel like there are better fits out there for Spurs at the moment.