Well, that sure didn’t take long. Just a couple of days after news first broke that Tottenham Hotspur was in late negotiations for a new extended contract for Uruguayan midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur, the club announced the deal on social media and their website this morning.
As has been the pattern starting this offseason, Spurs did not release any details about the length of Bentancur’s new contract, apart from that it is “long term.” I suppose it depends on what your definition of “long term” is — two years? Three? But considering Bentancur is 28, you have to assume the contract would be at minimum three years, which would take Lolo to the verge of his 32nd birthday… or beyond.
So how do I feel about this?
I’ll be honest, hold my hand up and say I have a complicated relationship with Rodrigo Bentancur. Yes, he’s been around a while with Spurs and has been at times very good. He’s also apparently a good locker room guy and a veteran player with years of Premier League experience, and that’s one of those intangibles that can sometimes make the difference. That said, he never really has been the same since coming back from the major knee injury that kept him off the pitch for nearly a year in 2023. He’s been a good player. I haven’t seen a enough for me to recommend giving him a new long term contract that extends into his early 30s when he already has shown what could be the early signs of a decline. And that’s without mentioning the two questionable personal incidents that got him in trouble last year, including the insensitive racial joke about Son Heung-Min and throwing a water bottle into the crowd after a tetchy international fixture.
The timing of this is probably about as bad as it could be, especially since Bentancur is coming off of a couple of pretty poor match performances, including an all-time stinker in Norway against Bodø/Glimt in the Champions League this past Tuesday.
But that’s the negative. The positive is that Bentancur does provide leadership and stability at a time when the club probably needs it. When he is on his game, he can be very, very good and he’s already had matches this season that made me sit up and take notice for all the right reasons. He’s settled and he’s happy, and that isn’t nothing. I certainly won’t be the one telling Spurs fans not to enjoy things. If you’re a person who celebrates a new contract for Bentancur, then by all means celebrate it.
I just wonder, you know? We went into this season expecting one or both of Yves Bissouma and Bentancur, who are both of a similar age, to be sold or moved on, replaced by a younger midfielder that brings different skills (like “passing”) to the table while we wait for our younger midfielders to age up and develop. Instead, both are still here, the midfield is kinda broken, and we’re extending one until he’s at least 31, unless this new deal will be used to sell him for a higher transfer fee in January or next summer. Does this seem like good squad construction to you? I’m just not so sure.
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