View: Bale's warning highlights muddled thinking over 92% Tottenham player

Gareth Bale’s Tottenham Hotspur warning has highlighted the muddled thinking over Souza’s January signing.

Like many rising Brazilian stars, Souza took the chance to head to the Premier League, with Tottenham agreeing a £13million deal with Santos for the 19-year-old at the start of the year.

The left-back has pedigree but as has been the case with some of Tottenham’s other young talent, such as Archie Gray, they are not coming into a stable environment, as Spurs desperately try and stave off relegation to the Championship.

So far, the teenager has played three times for Tottenham: one of which came under former boss Thomas Frank, and the other two have been with current interim manager Igor Tudor.

When the January window was open, Tottenham had the chance to strengthen further but settled with Souza and midfielder Conor Gallagher. This may have been another wrong turn from Spurs as they bid to save their season.

Souza faces difficult task at Tottenham – the numbers show why

So far, Souza has chalked up 88 minutes for Tottenham, all of which have been in the Premier League.

His sole start came in Tottenham’s 3-1 loss to Crystal Palace in the league on 5 March, with the youngster making way in the 43rd minute after Micky van de Ven’s red card.

He has a pass accuracy of just under 92 per cent, has created three chances, and has had 40 touches.

Souza has had four touches in the opposition’s box, has been dribbled past twice, has made a combined three recoveries and interceptions, and has made two clearances.

As this Sofascore graphic below shows, this is a very small sample size and not too much should be drawn from his Spurs start.

But the fact that Tottenham signed him at all, when they needed to bring in first-team quality to lift them clear of a relegation fight, speaks volumes about the club’s questionable decision-making.

Indeed, former Tottenham winger Gareth Bale said that some of the club’s struggles include not paying top wages to attract the best players and sticking to signing youngsters rather than players for the here and now.

He said on Stick to Football: “[Tottenham] don’t pay as much as [Manchester] United etc… look at the wage bill, it’s lower and I think there’s a reason for that, you can attract good players.

“They always seem to buy young and hope they can grow into something big, which has worked in the past for example with me and a few other players, but they’re an established club now.

“They have the stadium, they have the training ground and they have the fanbase, it’s like now they need to be buying bigger players and maybe paying a bit more.

“There’s that bit of a gamble that you need to take that from a business point of view they’re not willing to do, I obviously don’t know how they’re doing financially but it seems to be that for me, the biggest issue, that they don’t sign the proven player.”

Igor Tudor has to leave Tottenham

Tudor replaced Frank at Tottenham last month but so far, the Croatian has lost all four of his matches in charge.

Following Tottenham’s 5-2 drubbing at the hands of Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Tuesday, Spurs suffered their sixth consecutive loss in all competitions for the first time in the club’s 144-year history.

Tudor drew criticism for how he handled goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, with the 22-year-old being hooked after 17 minutes due to being at fault for two of Atletico’s early goals.

The 47-year-old appears to be an unpopular figure among the Tottenham players, the fans are already calling for his dismissal, and the board are also reportedly considering sacking him already.

Spurs looked scattered, divided and leaderless – and some of that comes from Tudor – with many players blaming each other for their own collective inadequacies.

The North London team haven’t won in the league since 28 December and are just one point above the relegation zone. This side won the Europa League last season, although they did finish 17th with 38 points.

They are currently nine points off that total with nine games to go. There is still time to turn it around but with Tudor at the wheel, that seems unlikely.

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