The problem with handing a new manager the keys to the kingdom when they want to build a team to challenge now is that some young stars of the future are going to be left outside the gates.
As with Luka Vuskovic, now Lucas Bergvall finds himself feeling rather unwanted by the same club that promised him he would quickly become a key figure for them as they convinced him to join rather than head to Barcelona or Eintracht Frankfurt just two years ago.
Now, as with Vuskovic, many of Europe’s top clubs are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of one of the continent’s top talents dropping into their laps.
To be fair to Roberto De Zerbi, Bergvall’s frustrations at Spurs began long before the Italian’s arrival in April, even if his initial season at the club brought everything that sporting director Johan Lange had promised him as the north London outfit prised him away from Djurgarden.
Ange Postecoglou quickly took to the then 18-year-old Swede with his all-action style and comfort on the ball and ensured his coaches worked hard with him in training sessions through his early adaptation months as he adjusted to the speed of the Premier League.
Bergvall’s long-time youth coach at first Brommapojkarna and later Djurgarden, Peter Kisfaludy, had told football.london before he joined that it would take the midfield talent around six months to adapt before he showed what he was all about and so it proved to be.
The Europa League was his training ground and by the time the injuries started to hit Spurs, Bergvall was ready to step into the breach and became a near regular starter under Postecoglou, playing both domestically and on the continent.
“We can see he’s starting to really feel comfortable at this level. He’s showing a real maturity for an 18-year-old and I think that’s hugely positive for us,” said Postecoglou. “By design you don’t want to throw young players into it but I think we’ll get enormous benefit from it for sure.”
In the end it was only an ankle injury that brought Bergvall’s first campaign to an end and meant he missed out on the Europa League semi-finals and final that he had done so much to get Spurs to. The Swede made a clean sweep of the player of the season awards and was handed a bumper new contract until 2031 for his efforts.
When football.london asked Postecoglou after that if Tottenham should build their team for the long-term around the likes of Bergvall, he nodded immediately.
“Yeah hugely so and I’m delighted for Lucas. It’s reward for his development this year, his performances and how well he has adapted. We’ve got to remember a lot of young guys who come to the Premier League maybe have a step in between whether that is playing in another league, but he has come straight from the Swedish league, a year of senior football and it’s a credit to him,” he said.
“He’s worked really hard at his game. At the beginning he was struggling to cope with the intensity and tempo, as you’d expect and we expected. A lot of our football and life in general is opportunity. He had an opportunity because of the situation we were in and he grabbed it with both hands. And even now, we’ve virtually got a full squad to pick from and he’s still being selected because he took the opportunity. I think there is a core group of young players here that hopefully we can build something from.”
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Experienced Spurs midfielder James Maddison gave football.london a thorough breakdown of Bergvall’s development behind the scenes.
“He was very keen to start – he was very enthusiastic like a little bee! He was just everywhere – on the pre-season tour you would turn the corner and he was just there, happy. I guess that’s the youthfulness of him. He’s a brilliant player and a fantastic talent, Tottenham have done amazingly well to get him to the club and to get him to sign a new contract which is brilliant for everyone at the club,” said the England international.
“He’s got some learning to do within the game, I guess, but he’s so young that that is fine. What he will have learned as well without even realising it … his journey this season which has just gone like that [points up] – it’s not been a gradual trajectory. He will have learned so much that next season he will be in a much better place in terms of what he has learned from the Premier League.
“When he first came in, he was a big powerful boy but I don’t think his body was up to the intensity of the league that we all know very well. Once he got to grips with that from playing so much because of the injuries that he has probably caught up quicker than you would have expected.
“But the talent is there and he’s got a good head on his shoulders. He always means well and is always willing to learn. I always help him as much as I can because anyone who is willing to learn you want the best for. He’s not someone who has come in, got straight into the team and tried to have himself a little bit.
“He’s kept grounded and he’s actually growing – I hear him demanding of other players and I love that. I love that he is in a place where he is confident enough to say to an older player, ‘come on’. I think that has obviously come from this season and the experience he has learned. So great future.”
Bergvall is someone who gives glimpses of both his youth and a remarkable maturity. When football.london travelled to the Stockholm suburbs to speak to the then teenager during the period after his transfer to Spurs was agreed in February but yet to happen until the summer, he was warm and confident, placing his hand occasionally on this far older reporter’s shoulder, clearly excited within his natural environment about what was on the horizon.
After the move to the Premier League club, Bergvall was initially shy with the media and would follow Dejan Kulusevski around behind the scenes like a lost puppy at times. His natural confidence though eventually shone through and ensured his relationships grew that first summer and he was soon throwing himself around with glee. One game of table tennis on the pre-season tour brought a few amusing teenage tantrums to those watching on as he was taught a lesson by Pedro Porro.
Bergvall is still so young and precocious and is someone who needs to feel loved. When Postecoglou left so he lost that paternal connection to his head coach.
“Thank you for everything you have done for me,” the young Swede wrote on Instagram. “Thank you for bringing this club a European trophy and memories to last a lifetime for us and every Spurs fan around the world. Wishing you all the best.”
From the outside the match with Postecoglou’s successor Thomas Frank should have been perfect. Another Scandinavian and someone who would know Bergvall well.
Instead it just never really clicked. football.london understands the Dane barely spoke to the young midfielder that much individually or in the same way as his previous coaches, who had all looked to put an arm around the talented teenager. Whether it was a ploy to keep Bergvall on his toes – those around some other young Spurs players speak of similar experiences – it instead created unease over whether the youngster was actually in Frank’s plans or not.
The initial signs were that he was, starting four of the Dane’s first six Premier League games, but he then had to settle for mostly a bench role or starring in the Champions League as he did on his competition debut against Villarreal.
Bergvall was in and out of Frank’s plans and was left frustrated by playing everywhere but in his favoured number eight role, the position in which everyone expects him to blossom. Even in training he rarely found himself working on developing in that position as Frank would play him out on the wings at times or as a more advanced number 10, meaning nobody really seemed to know what he was.
There was a feeling from Bergvall’s side that he wasn’t being allowed to compete as a number eight and when Frank pushed for the signing of Conor Gallagher in January that only increased. Amid his growing frustration Spurs batted away interest from numerous clubs in the January transfer window with the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa all showing interest.
Another ankle injury later that month meant he missed the end of the Dane’s tenure and all but 45 minutes of Igor Tudor’s brief stay in N17.
Things looked promising with De Zerbi’s arrival and the Italian is said to have had a long chat with the young midfielder after their first training session together. Bergvall duly started his first game against Sunderland but then as the need for results became so important, De Zerbi turned to his experienced heads in Rodrigo Bentancur and Joao Palhinha.
Bergvall got 51 minutes from the bench across the next four matches before watching on unused in the final two games of the season as Spurs kept their place in the Premier League. He played 1,465 minutes across the season compared to the 2,334 the previous campaign.
The frustrated Swede was whisked away to the World Cup, becoming the youngest player to appear in the competition for his country and duly grabbed an assist late on in the 5-1 win against Tunisia, setting up Kulusevski’s brother-in-law Yasin Ayari to score.
Bergvall’s Sweden team-mate Benjamin Nygren said after that game: “Lucas is one of the greatest talents that Sweden has ever had. He is awesome both as a player and I really like him as a person. We have become close.”
Unfortunately Bergvall does not feel as close to Tottenham any more and his camp have informed the club that he wants to leave this summer for a fresh challenge as the chance of minutes this coming season appear blocked with De Zerbi pushing for mega money midfield moves for Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali and West Ham’s Mateus Fernandes.
From Tottenham’s side there will be some surprise and a sense of impatience from someone so young and those around him. He was after all rewarded with a new six-year contract just 14 months ago and despite only turning 20 in February has played 78 times for a Premier League club. That’s something not many can boast and Spurs will feel they’ve held up their end of the promises made when they convinced him to join two-and-a-half years ago.
Bergvall may well suggest that only injuries allowed many of his minutes and likewise Archie Gray, a month younger, has played 81 times for the club in the same timeframe.
An ideal situation would be a loan move this summer for the Swede to get regular game time, continue to develop and return in a stronger position to fight for his spot, but it is understood that only a permanent transfer is being sought by his people at this time.
That leaves Tottenham with a big decision to make. They paid just an initial £8.5million for the youngster but with Bergvall quickly triggering other bonus payments due to his appearances.
With five years left on his contract, the north London club can ask for what they want for the Swede this summer as well as inserting a sell-on clause in any deal to protect themselves with what many expect to be his trajectory in the future.
That’s the problem though. In the short-term, selling players like Bergvall and Vuskovic may not make an immediate impact on De Zerbi’s squad for this season when replaced by ready-made big-money Premier League players but it is the future that Spurs are losing and it sends a dreadful message to those young players they want to sign going forward.
It will also mean Spurs lose a potential club-trained player for when they return to European competition, the constant problem that has dogged them over the years. Bergvall would have been on the B list this season had they qualified for continental football.
Tottenham could just take a stand and De Zerbi could make it clear to Bergvall that he will get game time this season because his high energy style requires constant changes. The lack of fixtures without European football will make that a difficult guarantee though.
Ultimately Spurs must decide between their present and their future and with their eye always having been on the latter, often to the detriment of the former, it may be that this summer ensures some very talented gems will be lost among the collateral damage.
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