Excited by Malinovskyi? Don’t do it to yourself

Atalanta’s Ruslan Malinovskyi could well be on his way to Spurs, or at least, that’s a narrative that a number of outlets are plugging. Regrettably, this is just another Tottenham transfer rumour which is more about creating content for ‘creating content’ reasons. Certainly, looking at the players’ data, it is ambitious to imagine that Antonio Conte, or indeed any Spurs coach would be in a great hurry to buy this player.

What’s the player like? To give you the ‘at a glance’ answer, this WhoScored? comparison function shows him as being an older, £35million cheaper version of Richarlison. Just what we need, eh? Another AMF that isn’t prolific in front of goals.

Another kiss of death came from some guy called Ryan Taylor who appeared on a YouTube fan channel, saying: “That creative midfielder – if there is a player that is out there that is available, I know Ruslan Malinovskyi from Atalanta is one that’s been looked at, for example, that’s the kind of player that Spurs would be interested in, certainly Conte.” The 29-year-old isn’t a creative midfielder. Not to worry, Chris Cowlin can’t tell the difference between a bundle of flip-flops and a Ferrari.

Make no mistake, Malinovskyi is primarily an AMF or occasionally a RAMF, and as his heat map for this current season demonstrates, he’s not a particularly potent one. With one goal and just two assists to his Serie A name, the alleged asking price of just €18 million according to Calciomercato, isn’t unflattering.

Spurs fans waiting for us to be linked with someone to get excited by, need to keep waiting.