Pundit View: £40m-valued Tottenham ace hit by ‘Massive Blow’, Mourinho ‘doesn’t like him’
Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho “doesn’t trust” Carlos Vinicius and his latest omission would have been a “massive blow” to the £40million-valued loanee.
That is according to former Premier League star Noel Whelan, speaking exclusively to Football Insider with the 25-year-old still yet to start a league match for Spurs.
The Brazilian was substituted on at half-time in Spurs’ 1-0 defeat to Brighton on Sunday but has a combined total of just 70 minutes of league action this season.
Three days before the Brighton loss, Spurs were beaten 3-1 at home by Liverpool with Harry Kane forced to withdraw through injury at half-time — but even with Vinicius on the bench, the manager opted for Erik Lamela as Kane’s replacement.
Tottenham have a £40.83million option to buy as part of the Benfica loan deal but are unlikely to take that up if Mourinho has any say in the matter, says Whelan.
“I think Lamela coming on [v Liverpool] was a strange one. He’s hardly played all season and it’s a striker that’s gone off and you bring on a midfield player,” Whelan told Football Insider.
“I know they were overrun in midfield but you’re then taking away that threat and that goal-scoring ability, by not replacing him with Vinicius. I do think that was a really strange decision by Jose Mourinho.
“It just shows that he doesn’t trust him because if he did it would be a like-for-like, wouldn’t it? Harry Kane off, the more sensible option there, or the more common one, would be okay striker off, striker on and it didn’t happen like that.
“He went to a midfield player and it left that best space wide-open. Look, Son can play centre-forward but he doesn’t like to play with his back to goal. He’s a player that likes to come in from wide areas and run onto balls and link up play.
“To me, when you’ve got a striker out there, not to choose him, I mean that’s going to be a massive, massive blow to Vinicius to see that happening. He must be wondering what do I need to do and why are you not choosing me?
“Jose Mourinho has obviously seen something that he doesn’t like or doesn’t trust in the player.”
Vinicius arrived at Spurs with high hopes having netted 24 times and registered 13 assists for Benfica in 2019-20.
The ex-Monaco loanee has scored six times for Tottenham, though three of those goals came in the 5-0 FA Cup victory over non-league marine.
In other news, a finance expert has praised Tottenham’s “phenomenal numbers” under the stewardship of Daniel Levy.