Milan Badelj is a 27-year-old Central midfield player who plays his football in Florence for Serie A club, Fiorentina – An opponent who Spurs have been familiar playing against in the last 2 seasons of the Europa league. He made the move from HSV to Fiorentina amidst rumors of interest from Manchester United for a fee of 5M Euros and has been a gem of a player for the Italian side.
Why should Spurs sign him up? In a nutshell, the player is a mix of both their current CM options, Dier and Dembele. Badelj loves the ball at his feet. He’s known to dribble his way through the opposition and also his way out of trouble, exactly the kind of physicality that one would associate with Belgian midfielder, Moussa Dembele. His passing range is not quite wide, he’s not the most creative player in the side but he does enough to keep the game ticking with his pin-point passing and can find a man when needed. The qualities that you would associate with both Dier and Dembele and also Nabil Bentaleb.
Another plus point of Milan Badelj is his tackling. He loves to put in a sensible tackle, sometimes he makes it a habit in converting audacious challenges to simple ones. Such is a quality that is missing in the current midfield for Spurs and is one they would want to add to in the near future. His concentration and reading of the game is too good as well as he is always present at the right place at the right time, just like Eric Dier has been with the role of shielding the defence.
Last but not the least, he loves to take a shot. When he hits, it stays hit. Scoring from long range is quite a normal thing for the Croatian, similar to Dier and Mason. He’s checking every box that Spurs would look for in a central midfielder to fit Pochetino’s pressing play system. He should not cost more than 10M euros either considering his age and the price at which he was bought for. Well, worth the punt and will be a very experienced option to add to the squad at Spurs who need the age and experience to mentor the young and upcoming Premier League midfielders in Dier, Alli, Carroll, Bentaleb and Mason.