Tottenham round-up: Club could remain at White Hart Lane; Erik Lamela linked with Serie A move

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Uncertainty still reigns supreme a Tottenham Hotspur over where they will be playing their home fixtures next season, with the construction of their new 61,000 capacity arena still very much underway. Brent Council granted an application from the Wembley Stadium Committee on behalf of the club last week which would allow Spurs to play all of their home games at the national stadium next season before its full capacity of 90,000, but fans will now wait on whether or not the club will take up the option of moving under the arch, or whether they will postpone their exit from their traditional White Hart Lane home for one more season.

This comes after comments made by chairman Daniel Levy, published in Tottenham’s financial report for the year ending June 2016 on the club’s official website, hinted at the possibility of Spurs remaining at White Hart Lane beyond the end of the season, depending on the progress of their new stadium project.

The club was given an initial deadline of the end of March to confirm its position to the FA of their intention to use Wembley for their 2017/18 Premier League home fixtures, but that deadline is now set to be put back until April 30th, according to the London Evening Standard, so that Tottenham have a greater chance of ascertaining whether their new ground will be ready by the start of the 2018/19 campaign, since their current White Hart Lane ground will require decommissioning.

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“We continue to focus on ensuring that the future of the club is protected at all times”, reads Levy’s statement accompanying the financial declaration, as reported in the Evening Standard.

“Therefore, whilst everyone is eager to know if this is our last season at White Hart Lane, we shall only make the decision to decommission our ground when we have greater certainty on the delivery of the new stadium.

“We have run this club on a financially secure basis for the past 16 years, whilst remaining ambitious and with a vision for its future growth and success.”

The finances themselves made for excellent reading, with a record revenue of £209.8m, and profit after interest and tax was at £33m, up from £9.4m the previous year.

Admirable and reassuring as it is that those in charge of the club are protecting its best interests, Tottenham supporters at this point will be eager to know more than anything just where the club will fulfill its home fixtures next season and when their new state-of-the-art arena is likely to be ready.

Regarding on the pitch matters, winger Erik Lamela is to miss the remainder of the season, after it was confirmed that he would undergo surgery on his hip, which is plagued by a recurring problem.

The £30million signing from Roma has not featured for Spurs since the EFL Cup defeat at Anfield on October 25, when the injury became apparent, which has since baffled medics at the club with its continual failure to heal. The Argentine has already spent time back in Rome to undergo scans on the injury, which suggested the issue should heal on its own, but with pain still afflicting the player, it is now a certainty that he will undergo surgery to combat the problem.

But the Daily Express also believes Lamela may not feature for the club again following his recovery and have linked the wide man with a return to Serie A over the summer, despite the fact he enjoyed a promising start to the season before getting injured, having featured in the win over Manchester City, and Spurs’ Champions League group matches against Monaco, CSKA Moscow and Bayer Leverkusen, from which the club attained a victory and a draw, losing once.

But given that Spurs have been able to excel in his absence, thanks to the chemistry between Harry Kane and Dele Alli, the extra firepower of Son Heung-Min, and the creativity of Christian Eriksen in the Number Ten role, Pochettino’s men have not suffered from Lamela’s absence. Thus, it may not be out of the question that the club should offload the wide-man, in order to raise funds for Pochettino’s summer transfer business, which is already set to be restricted financially by Spurs’ new stadium project.

Were Lamela to be sold, it would be interesting to see whether the money would be put towards a like-for-like replacement, or whether Pochettino would invest more heavily in his forward line, with Vincent Janssen the only fit out-and-out striker currently on the club’s books, and even his future at White Hart Lane is far from secure, having failed to make an impression since his summer move from AZ Alkmaar.

Featured Image: All Rights Reserved by Ai Kagou.