Andre Villas-Boas made his fourth signing of the summer transfer window last week by acquiring Etienne Capoue from French side Toulouse for a fee believed to be in the region of £9m. The versatile midfielder follows Roberto Soldado, Nacer Chadli and Paulinho to the club as Villas-Boas freshens us his first-team squad for his second year in charge at White Hart Lane:
The 25-year-old rejected the offer of guaranteed game time at Cardiff City to move to north London instead and despite the increased competition at his new club, reckons his international chances have taken a turn for the better:
“I decided that I wanted to play in a very attractive league. Because the Premier League is the top league in Europe, I decided that I wanted to go there and Tottenham was an opportunity that I could not refuse. Cardiff would not be a step up in my career. Tottenham allowed me to make that leap, Cardiff did not…I told myself that if I have a good season at Tottenham, I would have my chance to go to the World Cup in Brazil. I had a very good relationship with the president and staff during the transfer market and everyone agreed I should leave.”
The History
A product of the Toulouse youth academy, Capoue has been a one-club man prior to his move to White Hart Lane. Beginning his career back in December 2007, the six foot two defensive midfielder made just five appearances in his breakthrough season before cementing a regular role for the Ligue 1 club during the following campaign.
In his first three full years at Toulouse, Capoue offered little in terms of attacking returns –just three goals and three assists from 102 league matches – but has vastly improved over the last couple of seasons. Over 33 appearances in 2011/12 he produced three goals and five assists and improved once again last time out, with seven goals and an assist in 34 games. On the international stage, he has turned out for his country on 18 occasions and found the net once.
The Prospects
While Capoue is confident of accruing plenty game time over the campaign, there’s plenty of strong competition for the central midfield starting berths at White Hart Lane right now. The departure of Scott Parker, Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore may have lessened the load but with Paulinho, Mousa Dembele, Sandro, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Lewis Holtby all vying for contention, the strength in depth suggests rotation could well be on the cards.
At present, the future of Gareth Bale also plays a part in how we assess the situation. If the Welshman departs for Madrid, Villas-Boas’ shopping spree between now and the closure of the transfer window will likely have a major say in his preferred formation over the season. The 4-2-3-1 utilised at Selhurst Park on Sunday would surely restrict Capoue’s game time more than the 4-3-3 system utilised by Villas-Boas at former club Porto. Such a shape could well see the Frenchman sitting alongside Dembele or Sandro, with Paulinho pushing on as the most advanced central midfielder. Capoue’s versatility is likely to be beneficial to his minutes, though; Villas-Boas admitted this played a significant part in his acquisition, with the new boy also offering an option at centre-half in light of the summer departure of both Steven Caulker and William Gallas.
Those looking for a route into Tottenham’s midfield ahead of a strong run of upcoming fixtures will hold fire until the transfer window closes – the potential signing of Willian and/or Erik Lamela will play a significant part in how we assess the Fantasy landscape at the Lane. While a Fantasy Premier League (FPL) price of 6.0 is relatively budget-friendly, there are plenty of similarly-priced options who offer both guaranteed game time and far greater potential of attacking points; Capoue, in all likelihood, looks set to remain firmly off Fantasy radars over the season ahead.
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