Oh my! Media shock outlook, humiliating Son Heung-min to stay at Tottenham = Giving up captaincy + accepting rotation. Are you already treating him like a waste?

Mar 01, 2025

'Put down the captain and accept the rotation'

The British media went too far with "(Son Heung-min's lowering"). It is true that this season's performance is slightly lower than before, but they are still treating the players who show the highest level of offense in the team as 'dead treatment'. It is a malicious evaluation beyond the level of cold judgment.

Team Talk, a British media outlet, made a shocking claim on the 1st (Korean time). The media published an article titled "'4 Tottenham key players whose contracts end in 2026, should they sell or should they be left behind?' As the title suggests, the evaluation of the four players whose contracts expire in 2026 and the prospect of how Tottenham should treat these players.

The players mentioned here were Son Heung-min, Yves Bissouma, Rodrigo Bentancur and Brian Hill in order. It can be interpreted as the order of weight within the team. Team Talk referred to the present value of these four players and their future team roles, and finally marked 'Keep' and 'Sell'. Son Heung-min and Bentancourt were classified as 'Keep', while Bissouma and Hill were judged 'Sell'.

For now, it is fully understandable that Tottenham club predicted that Son Heung-min should stay. This is because Tottenham's achievements over the past decade have been tremendous, and he is still playing his part as the team's captain and the spearhead of the attack. Son Heung-min can be said to be Tottenham's legendary player in name and reality.

Son Heung-min, who is in his 10th season at Tottenham, has scored double-digit points in the EPL for nine consecutive seasons from the 2016-2017 season. In the 2021-2022 season, he became the first Asian player to win the EPL top scorer (23 goals) and received the FIFA Puskas Award in 2020.

It also added two more assists in the league's 26th round match against Ipswich Town last month, achieving 10 goals and 10 assists in official matches this season. It is the fifth season of personal tally '10 goals-10 assists'. He has played a total of 326 games in the EPL, making 126 goals and 71 assists. He is the 11th player in EPL history to join the club '70 goals-70 assists'.

As such, it is very common sense to keep Son Heung-min, who is still at the core of the team and has achieved outstanding achievements. So, it is true that there have already been predictions that Tottenham will sign a long-term contract with Son Heung-min since last summer.

But Tottenham's leadership rarely moved. In the end, it wasn't until January that the contract period was extended until June 2026 by using the previous one-year extension option instead of renewing the contract. Since then, Son Heung-min's future course has emerged as an unprecedented concern. There is a strong disagreement between the opinion that Son Heung-min should be left behind and that the transfer fee should be inflated as much as possible. Some media predict that Son Heung-min himself will break ties with Tottenham and leave to achieve his dream of winning.

In this situation, Team Talk suggested that Tottenham should stay Son Heung-min first. But it's absurd that it's the reason. He is undermining Son Heung-min too much.

The media cannot hide the fact that Son Heung-min is not as strong as he used to be. It can no longer achieve its old fierce speed and the finish is not as accurate as it used to be.

It's worth leaving Son Heung-min behind. Realistically, even if you try to sell it this summer, you won't get a lot of transfer fees. This is because he turns 33 in July, and his overall form is on the decline. However, it is still popular in the locker room, so it is good for coach Enze Postecoglou if he remains the rotation role of the offense. Son Heung-min also added that Tottenham needs better stadium leadership, so the captaincy should be put down.

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In the end, it is predicted that Son Heung-min will have to accept only a very limited role in order to remain at Tottenham. It seems objective, but in reality, it can be said to be a very rude and malicious claim.

Team Talk makes this argument because of Son Heung-min's age and poor performance. It is based on the offensive points that fell this season. Of course, it is true that Son Heung-min is somewhat sluggish compared to the previous season. However, this cannot be necessarily due to 'age'. In the face of a series of injuries, it is close to the aftereffects of coach Postecoglou giving Son Heung-min excessive duties.

Even if his performance has fallen compared to the previous season, he still has the best offense in the team. Son Heung-min has 15 attack points with six goals and nine assists in the league. It is right that his scoring ability has definitely declined. Still, he's in fifth place in the team. Instead, Help is the number one player in the team and the top five in the league. He ranks 10th in the league with 15 offensive points. By no means is it at the level of being treated as 'rejected' as described by Team Talk.

In addition, Son Heung-min cannot be solely blamed for the decrease in scores. Coach Postecoglou's anomalous use of players and excessive expectations for Son Heung-min are working in combination. Coach Postecoglou excluded Son Heung-min from the starting line-up at home against Manchester City on the 27th and only put him in in the 22nd minute of the second half to let him play for about 30 minutes.

Son Heung-min is known as the Man City killer. Having Son Heung-min on standby on the bench was already intended to give up his league performance and give young players a chance. This is why there has been a lot of criticism from the local area. This type of appointment and tactics is the background that made Son Heung-min focus on help rather than goals as a result.

However, Team Talk unilaterally pointed out Son Heung-min's decline in skills simply over the results and insisted that he should give up not only the captain's armband but also the main player. It is a very malicious analysis. Son Heung-min has another reason to leave Tottenham.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.