Sandro - The Tamed Beast

Article by Ben Waldron

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After a less than impressive campaign, there aren’t too many players who fans would have a problem with leaving the club. Aside from the likes of Christian Eriksen and Hugo Lloris, whose performances have merited their popularity and support from the fans, theirs one player, who seems to have all of our support, regardless of his performances on the pitch. Sandro.

The self-proclaimed, ‘Beast’, joined Tottenham in March 2010 for around £8 Million from Internacional. He experienced a stop start couple of years at the plan, having to play second fiddle in the defensive midfield role behind Scott Parker, yet during the 2012/13 season, the Brazilian established himself as a crucial player in the Tottenham set-up, creating an impressive partnership with Moussa Dembele under Andre Villas Boas.

However in January 2013, the seemingly indestructible Beast got injured, suffering a bad knee injury which ruled him out of the rest of the season, and the start of the following season.

Following spending a period in Brazil to recuperate from his injury, Sandro returned to Tottenham seemingly a different player all together. He’d slimmed down vastly, as well as adopting some impressive facial hair; however his on field performances suffered. The once physical, dominating figure began being pushed off the ball by smaller opponents.

Following Andre Villas Boas’ sacking, and a lack of form, Sandro got relegated to a bit part role in the second half of the season under Tim Sherwood, taking to social media on a number of occasions to insult the unpopular boss, which only led to further growth in his reputation amongst the Tottenham faithful.

Now, naturally he has been linked with a move away from the Lane, with many sources suggesting a move to Italy is very much in motion, with clubs such as Napoli, Roma and Inter Milan, all credited with a move for Sandro, with a figure of £15 Million being bounced around.

These rumours have been slated by the majority of Tottenham fans, suggesting that the sale of Sandro would be a serious negative by the club. However, I’m not convinced that he’s as pivotal as some make out.

Yes, Sandro is a very big character, and is liked by fans and players alike, but he seems to already be on the decline. As previously stated, his physicality isn’t what it was; he’s seemingly less agile and strong. And if a bid of around the £15 Million mark comes in, why not accept? There are better defensive midfielders out there, including one already in our squad, in Etienne Capoue.

The Frenchman was signed from Toulouse last summer, yet suffered an injury hit season which stopped him from shining at the Lane. However as seen before his move to the Capital, he’s a true, old fashioned anchor man who sits in front of the back four, a lot more disciplined than what we have seen from Sandro this season, and even has an eye for goal.

Now, I’m not suggesting that Sandro should be made available to leave, or pushed out the door, in fact I’d love him to stay, but the suggestions that it’d be as bad as potentially allowing Lloris or Eriksen to leave, is ridiculous, as a club, we must become more ruthless, not continuing to employ players, because ‘they’re funny’, or ‘they’re a nice guy’.

At the end of the day, Tottenham Hotspur is a business, who needs to continue to expand and grow, in order to remain competitive. And if a few loose cannons and big personalities need to be cut loose, then so be it, as at the moment, the player power at the Lane is far too strong.

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