Why Spurs and Everton should do battle to give PSG man his wish
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For a long time, it appeared as if Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Adrien Rabiot was destined to have a career spent in the gossip pages.
The former Manchester City youth has seemed permanently linked with a move away from Les Rouge-et-Bleu for an eternity, without any concrete news of his departure ever materialising.
Rumour writers got a new incentive to ponder over the 21-year-old’s potential destination recently, when the man himself spoke about wanting to return to the Premier League one day.
Not ones to ever miss out on a good opportunity, we’ve found two top-flight teams who should view that news as a personal invite to pursue Rabiot. Here’s why:
Tottenham
Spurs were the one team constantly thought to be chasing Rabiot in the past, and for good reason.
Rabiot is developing into a passing centre-midfielder and, with Marco Verratti on the comeback trail from injury, has featured in all three of PSG’s league games this term. He’s averaged over 65 passes-per-game in that time, with a success rate of 89 per cent.
Those characteristics would fill a void at White Hart Lane, where the defensively-minded partnership of Eric Dier and Victor Wanyama has looked a little pedestrian.
Everton
As hard as it may be to believe, Gareth Barry is going to retire from football someday soon. At the moment, Everton don’t really have a natural successor for the 35-year-old lined up.
Barry has averaged the most passes per game at Goodison Park in both of the last two seasons and is once again leading the way after three games this term.
All of the club’s other midfield options – Tom Cleverley, Darron Gibson, James McCarthy, Idrissa Gueye and Muhamed Besic – are workmanlike in their approach, so adding a tempo-dictator like Rabiot would complement them well.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
