Tottenham reportedly want £6.5m English star that praised Jose Mourinho earlier this year

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Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly keeping tabs on West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Sam Johnstone if Mauricio Pochettino looks to lure Hugo Lloris to Paris Saint-Germain – and his comments on Jose Mourinho from the summer are interesting.

Pochettino has been confirmed as PSG manager and The Sun claimed last week that the Argentine manager could look to former side Tottenham to bolster his PSG ranks. Spurs skipper Lloris is potentially on his shortlist, with the January window open.

But Spurs are planning for such an eventuality, as per the report. It is claimed that Spurs are keeping tabs on Johnstone and Manchester United’s Dean Henderson. Johnstone, 27, was sold to West Brom in 2018 by Mourinho for £6.5million (E&S).

Speaking about Mourinho on his sale two years ago, Johnstone praised the then-Manchester United boss in an interview with Manchester Evening News – after asking to be sold. He claimed the Portuguese manager was “easy to speak to him”.

“I had a few loans before that, but I said to him ‘I want to go out and loan and play football’ and he allowed it and I appreciated that. I went for 18 months straight on loan [at Aston Villa] and then went to West Brom,” Johnstone said in the summer.

“We had the best goalkeeper in the world at the club and I just wanted to play football. Jose was great. When you really believe that you want to go out on loan — I wasn’t 50-50 about it, I was certain — it was easy to speak to him.”

TBR’s view – Is Johnstone good enough for Tottenham?

While West Brom’s poor form and leaky defence cannot be entirely contributed to the former Manchester United goalkeeper, Johnstone deserves some criticism for conceding 39 goals in 17 league games – and managing to keep just two clean sheets.

He is a good goalkeeper and one with Premier League quality. But is he good enough for a side that are looking to finish in the top four and push for the Premier League title? No. Is he good enough to be back-up to Lloris? Yes.

As a replacement for Lloris, Tottenham need to be aiming higher.