Ones to Watch - Sandro Ramirez: Premier League bound?

The January window has been open for a few days now and despite a steady flow of rumours, as we’ve all come to expect, there’s been very little movement. It’s often the worst time to buy as clubs don’t want to lose key players midseason so the asking prices are exaggerated. For those few clubs where money is no object major signings now are often a sign of desperation in an attempt to kickstart a poor opening 5 months. On the other hand the January window can allow players, perhaps not being used as much as they’d have liked, to search for pastures new.

Barcelona’s Sandro Ramirez fits the bill of that last option although he has played more than he expected this season after the seemingly invincible Lionel Messi picked up an injury against Las Palma at the end of September. With Arda Turan and Aleix Vidal unavailable despite Barcelona asking FIFA if they could be registered early, Luis Enrique turned to youngsters Sandro and Munir El Haddadi to help plug the gap left by the Argentine.

Sadly neither of the two did enough in their cameo appearances for Luis Enrique to see a future for them at the club. With Turan and Vidal now available and the club actively searching for more wide, offensive options it appears time has run out for the Barcelona B players to make the grade and Sandro has garnered interest from the Premier League, notably Tottenham Hotspur.

Spurs’ interest in Sandro isn’t new as there was a tentative enquiry about the versatile frontman last summer but with the club under a transfer embargo and seeing him as cover for the famed ‘MSN’ frontline, it was made clear he wouldn’t be allowed to leave like Adama Traore, Gerard Deulofeu and Denis Suarez had previously.

Sandro Ramirez is originally from Las Palmas and caught the attention of Barcelona scouts in 2009 where he was signed for the famous ‘La Masia’ academy. Sandro began life in the ‘B’ side and the coaches soon realised his potential as his goals helped the side lift the Manchester United Premier Cup which took place at Old Trafford in 2010, edging Mexican side CF Pachuca in the final.

He continued to impress, this time with the ‘A’ side, winning every title available alongside Sergi Samper and Alex Grimaldo but did have surgery on his right knee which ruled him out for 3 months. He featured a couple of years later in the NextGen tournament where he was Barcelona’s top scorer with 3 goals, 2 of those incidentally coming against Tottenham Hotspur. He then suffered yet another knee injury, this time to his left one, which put him on the shelf for another 3 months.

One of Sandro’s idols is David Villa and there are similarities in terms of playing style. Sandro is one of those modern number 9s who is happy to drift out wide to either wing, pulling defenders out of position before quickly darting back inside to finish the move off. He scored 7 goals in his first season for Barcelona B, his debut goal coming against Real Madrid Castilla in the ‘MiniClasico’.

Luis Enrique brought him into the first team picture during the 14/15 season after a successful preseason while many of the star players were resting after the World Cup in Brazil. With new signing Luis Suarez banned, Sandro made good of the chance presented to him and scored the winning on his debut against Villarreal. Two weeks later he scored again, this time against Levante, and was regularly brought on as a substitute in the league. He also scored in the home match against Ajax in the Champions League. However once Suarez was eligible to return, Sandro went back to Barcelona B.

After Pedro left the club in the summer he was officially promoted to the first team and in an interview conducted by Barcelona newspaper SPORT, he admitted that even with Pedro moving on it’d be complicated for him to get many chances at the club. “It’s still difficult because ahead of me are the three best players in the world, but there you go. But something could happen and there are games when the manager rotates the side. You need to be at 100% to take advantage of these moments.” Unfortunately for Sandro, maybe due to playing out of position on the wing, he hasn’t taken his chance to establish himself at the club. Although he did score a fine hat-trick in the Copa del Rey.

In the same interview he was asked if he had ever thought about leaving the club and he said he hadn’t. “Honestly no. When the opportunity became available to join Barcelona, the best team in the world and you see how the club focus on the academy, I wanted to come here. The truth is I’ve never thought about leaving because I’m happy here and they’ve given me everything.” But while he might have been content to stay in the summer, it appears Luis Enrique wants to move him on in January if possible.

The issue for Sandro and Barcelona is that the Catalan club need to sell before they can buy. Even under a transfer ban the club’s costs have increased year on year, rewarding key players with bumper contracts and they are now in a position where they need to generate their own funds. The most likely source is through selling youth prospects at reasonable fees with buyback clauses in case the respective player reaches the potential expected of them.

Sandro’s release clause is a modest €12m, which is just under £9m, but Tottenham aren’t interested in paying that and hope to negotiate the fee down. Barcelona are open to that but insist on a buyback clause being inserted into any deal which, again, doesn’t interest Daniel Levy in the slightest. Gerard Deulofeu and Adama Traore recently completed moves to the Premier League on similar deals but Spurs don’t want to invest time in a player for someone else to reap the rewards later on.

The player himself is apparently happy to seek pastures new if Luis Enrique doesn’t see him having a future at the club. Maurico Pochettino has a growing reputation in European football for giving youngsters the chance instead of searching for big money signings, a bit like the old Barcelona blueprint. With Clinton N’Jie out for an unspecified amount of time it leaves Tottenham’s forward line extremely light so the signing of Sandro would make sense if the clubs can reach a mutual agreement.

In many ways Sandro Ramirez would be the perfect fit for Tottenham. Pochettino loves to work with players he knows have the talent but perhaps need a little extra coaching and more than anything, a fair chance to prove their worth. With Kane the only genuine number 9 on Tottenham’s books he would have more opportunities in his favoured centre forward role than if he stayed at Barcelona.

Sandro is technically sound, has pace to burn, is unselfish but with a burning desire to fulfil his potential. It’s crucial that he makes the correct choice with his next move and there are a lot worse places to be at right now than Tottenham Hotspur.