da betobet： Tottenham Hotspur paid Roma a hefty £25.8 Million fee for Erik Lamela last year after the promising 22 year old Argentinian winger made a lot of waves in his career with two impressive seasons in Italy.
da jogodeouro： Having spent his youth at Argentinian side River plate he went on to attract a lot of attention from the European media after scoring a bag full of goals for the youth team in 2004 as a 12 year old. He created similar waves in Europe to his compatriot Lionel Messi who went on to play for Barcelona and has become the best player in the world.
He made his senior début in June 2009 and went on to score four goals in thirty-seven appearances for the first-team before making a move to Italian side Roma, where he spent another two seasons and scored nineteen goals in sixty-two appearances. He caught the eye of many clubs and continued to show a lot of promise as a youngster not only for his club but at international level; to date his has made seven appearances for his country and has an international senior goal to his name already. He had a fantastic spell in Rome earning himself a five year contract with them and playing some top class football which saw him create and score some vital goals in very important games for the Italian side.
Lamela, best known for his sublime dribbling and passing ability, looked like he would be a great addition for any top team and eventually found his way to Tottenham, who paid quite a large but justified price tag for the whiz kid who himself said he wanted to follow in Maradona’s footsteps. After add-ons he became (at the time) the most expensive player in the club’s history, breaking records which had been set earlier in the same transfer window by Paulinho and Soldado – it was a famously expensive summer for the North London side who spent a whopping £100 Million on players and completely revamped their squad. Erik went on to make his debut for Spurs as a 75th minute substitute against Arsenal who beat his new side on the day in a one nil victory then went on to register his first start for the side in the Europa League and got his first assist, providing a goal for Jermain Defoe in a three nil victory over Tromso IL at White Hart Lane. Early signs showed a lot of promise for the youngster and it looked like he would slot in well and continue impressing with his football for his new club, but that never seemed to fall into place for him with Villas-Boas not giving him a Premier League start and saying that the player would have to compete for his place in the starting line up and wasn’t producing half of what he was capable of producing. Even under care taker boss Tim Sherwood, the player couldn’t really find a consistent starting place in the team making the odd start here and there before a back injury terminated his season early.
The player didn’t live up to his price tag in his first season with Tottenham, and it must have been a frustrating period in the youngster’s career in England, not just for him but for the fans as well who would have expected big things from someone who carried such a hefty price tag.
This season however, he is under yet another new manager with Pochettino and he looks to have fitted in perfectly to his new manager’s team and plans, with his first start of the season coming as early as the first game of the season against West Ham before appearing off the bench against AEL away, providing assists for Soldado and Harry Kane and two further assists in the following game where his side demolished Premiership new boys QPR.
He finally looks like he is justifying his big transfer fee, and I think that under his new manager he is going to keep on shining and improving game by game. The gaffer has already stated that he will be giving the player his chance to prove what quality he possesses and he wants his whole team to play exciting football, saying this in a recent interview : “For me, it is about exciting football, pressing high, playing with flair – this is our philosophy that we want to get down. We want to put all these things in place.” And it seems that Lamela is the perfect candidate to bring that sort of football to the table, as he has been known for it so far in his career wherever he has played and early signs so far this season show a lot of promising times lay ahead for him and his club.
I think that Spurs fans will be very pleased with what they have got with Lamela and will enjoy seeing him perform on the pitch. His contribution this season will certainly be a vast improvement on last season’s and he could well help the team to find the back of the net and get the goals that count in aiming for that golden fourth place finish in May.
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