Club insider John Wenham is of the opinion that Tottenham Hotspur are better off without signing Jobe Bellingham from Sunderland and should rather be sticking with Jamie Donley, speaking exclusively to TottenhamHotspurNews.
Spurs have been linked with a move for the younger brother of the much-praised and admired Real Madrid superstar Jude Bellingham. The Lilywhites will have to fork out around £20million with the Black Cats clearly banking on the surname reputation to court a substantial fee from this transfer.
This isn’t to say that the 18-year-old isn’t talented. Seven goals and one assist in 47 appearances in the Championship are certainly very decent numbers at his age but the problem for Jobe is that regardless of what he does, he will always be fighting off comparison with his older brother Jude.
Jobe Bellingham is talented but anyone following his career would know that he is nowhere close to the levels that Jude exhibited at the same age. The teenager is certainly a player worth investing money on but the price that Sunderland are demanding seems to be a bit outlandish at the current moment.
The fear of missing out?
It is safe to say that English clubs would be ruing the fact that they failed to identify Jude’s ceiling early on his career. Had one of the top guns seen what Dortmund saw in the player, Jude might be playing in the Premier League at the moment. Whilst a return to England seems almost inevitable at some point, the feeling would be largely different.
Thus, Premier League clubs including Tottenham are looking to overcorrect and not make the same mistake with Jobe. However, if the words of Wenham are to be taken into account, Spurs would be better off looking to nurture Jamie Donley.
“He’s not a player I am interested in us signing to be brutally honest. Whenever I’ve watched him play for England, I’ve always come away with the feeling that Donley is better than him. Therefore, I wouldn’t want to be adding someone to the club who I don’t think is a better option than what we’ve already got. I’d rather we save the £20million and put it toward a big-name signing while promoting Donley instead.”
Money is not always the answer to success. Tottenham just need to take a left out of Barcelona’s book to understand that sometimes, the most talented players come from the inside of the club through the academy. Madrid might have spent north of nine figures for Jude but in the same time, Barcelona have managed to unearth the likes of Gavi and Lamine Yamal from the academy.
If Donley is indeed as talented as Wenham deems him to be, he is bound to succeed in his career. If Spurs show some trust in him, they might reap the rewards of his successes. If not, they will have to watch from distance as the talented youngster goes on to make it big in his career at some other club.
