Tottenham Hotspur have been credited with an interest in Norwich City’s 20-year-old right-back Max Aarons.
The youngster has made 21 appearances for Daniel Farke’s side this season, and despite the Canaries struggling at the foot of the Premier League table, he has impressed through his performances. He was a huge part of the Championship-winning side last season, and has continued in the same vein, despite the obvious step-up in quality.
Spurs have arguably struggled at right-back ever since Kyle Walker left for Manchester City. Keiran Trippier had a decent spell in the side for a while, but he was always better at attacking than defending, and in any case he too has left for newer pastures in Atletico Madrid, where, ironically, he is thriving under the tutelage of Diego Simeone. This has left Serge Aurier and Kyle Walker-Peters as the only senior right-backs at the club, but both of them are unsuitable for the role. Aurier is extremely poor defensively, getting caught out of position regularly, while Walker-Peters is still considered too inexperienced by Jose Mourinho to be given the role on a regular basis.
Aarons, however, has shown his quality for Norwich despite his age. His statistics match up favourably to Aurier – he has a better pass success rate (79% to 78.2%), makes more blocks per game (0.9 compared to 0.2), and concedes fewer fouls as well (0.9 to 1.1). He is also dribbled past much less than the Ivorian international (0.5 times per game compared to 1.1). Aarons has been capped at U19 and U21 levels for England, with rumours of a senior call-up as well. However, England are supremely well-stocked in the right-back department, with Walker, Trippier, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Reece James all available to Gareth Southgate. Nevertheless, Aarons would make a sensible addition to Spurs’ squad, and Mourinho should look to make his signing a priority for this window.
