Montpellier has confirmed that they have received offers for known Newcastle and Tottenham target Younes Belhanda.
The club have made it clear that they are not intent on keeping the Moroccan  midfielder and that they have received and accepted two concrete offers.
A tweet from the official Montpellier account read “Louis Nicollin: ‘we have 2 concrete offers for Y. Belhanda with whom we are in agreement, it is up to the player to choose’.” Nicollin did not, however, reveal which clubs the accepted bids had come from.
Belhanda has been heavily linked with both Tottenham and Newcastle, and both teams certainly have room for the attacking midfielder. He has become somewhat of a big fish in a small pond after Montpellier failed spectacularly in defending their title win from the previous year, finishing ninth this season.
Despite the disappointing finish in the league, Belhanda has impressed individually for the second successive season. Playing most regularly as an attacking midfielder, he scored 10 goals and provided 3 assists in 30 appearances in the league. He achieved this with on average 2.3 shots per match and 1 successful dribble.
His passing stats are also admirable. He averaged 43.1 passes per game and from these 78.4% were successful. What is particularly impressive is that he also provided 1.8 key passes per game, proving that he has a certain creative capacity to his game.
The question now is whether or not he would be able to compete within the Tottenham or Newcastle midfield, and to what extent he would be able to potentially enhance the overall quality of both squads.
Tottenham
It’s more difficult to compare an attacking midfielder to Tottenham midfielders, as Villas-Boas has regularly asked his midfielders to play a variety of positions that range from central, to attacking, to wide. However, Tottenham’s most regular central and attacking players from last season were Bale and Dempsey. Holtby was throw into the mix too in January, although he didn’t get quite enough minutes to be compared in this instance.
Whether Bale started on the left or in the centre he had an extremely free role that saw venture across the whole of the front free during a match. As the PFA player of the year everyone is aware of his quality, and an ability that saw him score 21 goals and achieve 4 assists in the league. His pass success was 79% and from those 2.3 were key passes, and he also successfully completed 2.3 key passes per match. It’s harsh to compare Belhanda to one of the best midfielders in the world, although he isn’t a million miles away from Bales stats.
He is more comparable to Dempsey, who scored 7 goals with 4 assists from 29 appearances (7 from the bench). The two players also have similar passing stats. Dempsey’s pass success was 81%, although he only averaged 26 passes per match of which 1.1 were key to the team. Belhanda may have a marginally lower pass success percentage, but is statistically stronger in every other department and demands the ball far more. He is a play maker as much as he is a direct goal threat and would certainly bring a new dimension to the Tottenham midfield.
Newcastle
 Once again it seems Newcastle are aiming to take advantage of the value-for-money players available from the French league. As Alan Pardew explained last season, this is the reason for him signing so many individuals from that league in January.
The two most similar players that Newcastle have to Belhanda are Cabaye and Sissoko.
In 26 league appearances, Cabaye notched up 6 goals and 2 assists with an average of 2.3 shots per game. His passing statistics are remarkably similar to Belhanda’s; whilst averaging 45 passes per game, of which 2 were key passes, he achieved a pass success of 79.5%. This would suggest that Belhanda and Cabaye are very similar players. The explanation for why Cabaye was directly involved in less goals is that he generally played from a deeper position this season. In every respect other than this though, they are two very similar players.
It is harder to compare Sissoko to Belhanda since he was only with Newcastle from January, however in that time he started 12 games. In that time he both scored and assisted 3 times, with 2 shots per match on average. He made 1.6 key passes per game from an average of 39 completed, and 78.6% of all his passes were successful. Sissoko played in a more advanced role than Cabaye, and was directly involved in more goals per game than him because of it.
Overall and from a statistical perspective, Belhanda is likely to bring more to Tottenham than to Newcastle. The latter already have two players who contribute to the team in similar ways. That said he would of course still contribute hugely to the squad, and there is no certainty over whether Cabaye will still be with Newcastle come the start of the season.
As well as the goals and assists that he would bring, it is his passing stats that would likely make the most impact were he to sign for Tottenham. None of the club’s attacking players, not even Bale, demand the ball as much as him and his presence in the team would certainly help their midfield to control the opposition. However, with the imminent departure of Paulinho, as described by Corinthians, and with the Brazilian’s most likely destination being Tottenham, there is no certainty as to whether the club will follow up their interest in Belhanda.
Belhanda Stats via WhoScored.com
