Tottenham Hotspur paid £185 million for midfielders Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes this summer.
Spurs decided not to sign Joao Palhinha and loaned Pape Matar Sarr to Juventus for the season. The move becomes permanent if he features in half of their Serie A matches.
However, his latest performance in Italy suggests their decision to offload him is an error.
The on-loan Spurs star came on in the second half against Atalanta and delivered an outstanding display in a new deep-lying playmaker role.
Several Tottenham fans had been calling for managers to use him in this role, but they didn’t listen. Thomas Frank wasted him as a number ten.
In his new number six role, Sarr added energy, physicality, and robustness without the ball. He was equally excellent with it.
Sarr’s first action after coming on was to evade pressure from deep, carry forward and release Randal Kolo Muani, but he didn’t manage to get a shot off.
The 24-year-old completed 25 out of 27 passes (93 percent accuracy), one attempted long ball, won a foul and lost the ball only twice.
He won his three ground duels and two tackles, adeptly replacing the injured Manuel Locatelli in the engine room.
His current manager, Luciano Spalletti, turned Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa into one of the best deep-lying playmakers in the world and could do the same with Sarr.
The Senegal international has all the tools to do phenomenally well in that position.
He could do a better job than Rodrigo Bentancur at the base of Tottenham’s midfield, giving the team a more physical and combative presence.
Unfortunately, Spurs might have to watch in anguish as he shines elsewhere and hope that the £185m pair come good after poor starts.
