Is Spurs’ latest budget centre-half signing actually any good?
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Tottenham have secured their first signing of the summer, according to the BBC and the club’s official website, with centre-half Kevin Wimmer heading to White Hart Lane from Koln for £4.3m.
Wimmer’s name isn’t exactly new to avid football watchers; indeed, the 22-year-old’s move to north London was broken perfectly by the Guardian over two months ago, and rumours have been going round about both Spurs and neighbours Arsenal’s interest in the player for some time.
Whether he’s actually any good and would be an improvement on what Spurs have already is another matter.
That being said, centre-half has been a troubling position for the Lilywhites of late, with Eric Dier, Federico Fazio, Vlad Chiriches, Etienne Capoue and Younes Kaboul all tried alongside stalwart Jan Vertonghen over the past couple of campaigns.
The latter three look frozen out at this stage, particularly Capoue and Kaboul, while Fazio has been inconsistent and Dier promising at times, although playing half of last season at right-back can’t have helped his development.
With this in mind, one more centre-back was required by boss Mauricio Pochettino for cover on each side, and bearing in mind that there’s potentially a first-team spot up for grabs, taking a chance on Wimmer at a reasonable price could be a good call.
Koln went from strength to strength after sticking the 6ft2in Austrian international in the side regularly, going from a distant fifth in the 2. Bundesliga in 2012/13 to six-point champions a year later, meaning passage back to the top flight.
During that promotion-winning campaign, Koln conceded 13 fewer goals than the next most-frugal outfit in the division, with Wimmer appearing in 26 of their 34 league outings.
He started all but two of their 34 Bundesliga fixtures this year as Die Geissbocke climbed all the way up to 12th in the top tier.
An ESPN scout report described Wimmer as a strong, solid, no-nonsense centre-back who does the simple things well, but can also take the ball out of defence and pick a pass.
His build, pace and solidity are listed as main attributes, with potential weaknesses being concentration lapses and ‘not the best technically’.
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