Maurico Pochettino made his first foray into the transfer market as manager of Tottenham by snapping up Ben Davies and Michel Vorm from Swansea City. The former arrives at White Hart Lane for a fee reported to be in the region of £10 million as the north London outfit saw off Liverpool in the race for his signature.
Having made his debut in the midweek friendly win over Toronto, the 21-year-old left-back discussed his move with the club’s official website:
“I’m very happy to be joining a club like Spurs. It was such a good opportunity for me and there was no doubt in my mind about it. It’s a great place to be and something I jumped at the chance of being part of..I just want to play as many games as I can this season. My aim is to come in and do my best and work hard under the new gaffer.”
The History
A product of the Swansea youth system, Davies was propelled into the first-team as a 19-year-old after first-choice left-back Neil Taylor suffered a serious ankle injury at the start of the 2012/13 campaign. Despite a lack of top-level experience, Davies was afforded the chance to impress by then-manager Michael Laudrup and went on to feature 37 times in his debut Premier League season, producing a goal and two assists.
Despite Taylor’s return to full fitness last term, Davies continued as the Swans first-choice left-back under Laudrup and replacement Gary Monk. Racking up another 34 league appearances, his raids down the flank served up two goals and an assist for the Welsh outfit.
On the international stage, Davies represented Wales Under 19 side on three occasions before being handed his senior debut in October 2012. He’s since gone on to represent his country 10 times and remains ahead of former team-mate Taylor in the pecking order.
The Prospects
Pocchetino’s penchant for attacking full-backs in his preferred 4-2-3-1 system bodes well for Davies’ Fantasy potential over the season ahead. The raiding runs of Nathaniel Clyne and Luke Shaw were a feature of Southampton’s play under the Argentine last season and the new man in charge will be keen to replicate a system that helped his former side to an eighth place finish in his only full campaign at the helm.
A look at Davies’ distribution in 2013/14 underlines he was more than a little unlucky just to pick up a single assist. The left-back produced 31 key passes for the Swans last term – joint seventh amongst defenders – and created a goalscoring opportunity for team-mates every 97.6 minutes; up from 178.9 minutes in his debut campaign and illustrating his improvement in the final third.
Furthermore, Davies improved his successful dribbles from 43.2% to 51.7% in 2013/4 and also improved his shot accuracy (from 22.2% to 33.3%) and the frequency of attempts on goal (336.2 minutes per effort compared to 357.8 the season before) to further indicate the 21-year-old’s growing stature.
Bearing in mind that Pochettino led Southampton to 15 clean sheets in the previous season – seven at home and eight away, more than any teams on their travels – there’s a real belief that Spurs could offer us strong potential at the back, boosting Davies’ prospects at both ends of the pitch.
Another cause for optimism is the youngster’s price across the Fantasy games. Starting off as a Swansea player, he sets you back just 5.0 in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) and 5.5 in the Sky Sports game; bearing in mind fellow full-back Kyle Walker and Jan Vertonghen are priced at 6.0 apiece, Davies certainly has the potential to provide us excellent value. His move also allows Taylor the chance to reclaim the Swansea left-back berth and, at 4.5 in FPL, he’s now back on some managers’ radars ahead of four decent home games in the first seven for the Swans.
The opening schedule also smiles in Davies’ favour. With Pochettino’s side set to face just three of last season’s top seven in the opening 12 Gameweeks – including home matches with QPR, West Brom, Southampton, Newcastle and Stoke – the young Welshman is handed the chance to play his way into our Fantasy plans from the outset.
