Does Lucas Moura Have a Future at Spurs?

With Manchester City and Liverpool now firm favourites to battle it out for this year’s PL title, as you can see here, attention is slowly but surely turning to the next campaign for a lot of Spurs fans. One of the key questions is which players will be staying at the club and who will be making a swift departure. That brings us to the Brazilian enigma that is Lucas Moura.

After an impressive start to the season, the winger has seen his form dip over the past few months. That hasn’t gone unnoticed by Pochettino, who has benched Moura for the majority of league games in 2019. Will Moura be staying in North London this summer, or will he be waving goodbye to the Lilywhites?

Spurs’ record-breaking transfer window

Tottenham hit the headlines in the summer of 2018 when they became the first club in Premier League history not to sign a single player in the summer transfer window. This was somewhat justified with the retention of several key players like Alli, Kane and Eriksen – all of whom attracted significant interest from bigger clubs.

Another saving grace for Spurs fans was the signing of PSG winger Lucas Moura for £23 million in the previous January. With a lack of match fitness, the signing was seen by many as preparation for the 18-19 campaign. That proved mostly true, as Moura was mainly used for cup matches in the remainder of the 17-18 season, with his only goal coming against Rochdale in the FA Cup.

A promising start

So, it’s the start of the new season and a now-fit Lucas Moura is essentially a new addition for Spurs. He didn’t disappoint. Moura started the first 13 league games and it wasn’t long before he netted his first Premier League goal. The Brazilian scored the opener in Spurs’ first home fixture of the season against Fulham and went on to net a brace in the following 3-0 win over Manchester United – eventually winning the player of the month award for August.

Then came the usual rush of fixtures between December and January, with Spurs competing in the Champions League, League Cup and FA Cup on top of the Premier League. Understandably, Pochettino decided to rotate Moura with his other attacking options. But it’s what’s happened since then that has left a lot of football fans a bit confused…

Moura in 2019

Since the turn of the year, Lucas Moura has found Premier League starts a lot harder to come by. Strangely this coincides with one of the worst attacking shortages Spurs have seen over the last few years, with key men Harry Kane and Dele Alli both out injured while Son Heung-Min was away at the Asian Games.

Even with so many key players out, Moura couldn’t secure a regular place in the Spurs starting 11 – with Pochettino alternating between him and Fernando Llorente. That’s understandably left a lot of us wondering whether his days are numbered in London.

Will Moura make a move?

While it’s a bit soon to be cooking up transfer rumours, it’s entirely possible that Lucas Moura would consider a move away from Spurs to get more game time. However, with his contract keeping him in London until 2023, any clubs interested in the winger would need to at least reimburse the fee Tottenham paid for him.

Maybe we’ll see a revival of the form that made him so popular back in August? Only time will tell.