Spurs are targeting a £25m Euro 2024 star this summer - but he may not be worth the money

Tottenham Hotspur have made a slow start to the summer transfer window, as they so often do – but while Daniel Levy’s determination to play brinksmanship and push transfers close to the deadline may well have some financial benefits most of the time, they may have been well advised to move faster if they want to sign Galatarsaray’s Baris Alper Yilmaz, as has been widely reported in Turkey.

Yilmaz, a 24-year-old right-footed winger who plays on both flanks for his club, is a member of Turkey’s Euro 2024 squad and was especially impressive in the 2-1 win over Czechia, producing several good chances and punishing the opposing defence with his potent, surging runs. According to a new report from Sport Witness, that has added an extra €10m (£8.5m) onto a price tag which stood at €20m (£17m) before the tournament started.

Spurs may not be able to wait too long to go get their man, either – a few other sides have been linked with signature, with Manchester United’s name coming up in dispatches with increasing regularity. So should they take the plunge and sign the young Turk despite his spiralling price, or is this an instance in which the purse strings should be drawn firmly shut?

The 2023/24 season was Yilmaz’s first as a regular starter with Galatasaray, although he made his Turkey debut as far back as 2021 shortly after he broke into his domestic side’s first team for the first time. He was productive over the last season, but not remarkably so, scoring six and setting eight more up over the course of 45 matches in the Süper Lig and Europe.

So while he will chip in with goals and assists, it’s his athletic prowess that a club would most likely want him for first and foremost. A hard-running and impressively strong winger, he can get at defenders with pace and when matched up against a full-back on an off day he can cause havoc – and his stamina means that he can keep at it all match.

His burst of pace is also sufficient to catch defences cold on occasion, such as when he scored the only goal in a 1-0 Euro 2024 qualifying win over Croatia, latching onto a long ball which goalkeeper Dominic Livakovic had come out for and beating him to the punch comfortably, allowing him to knock the ball into an essentially unguarded net from over 20 yards out.

But while he is capable of the spectacular and of terrorising defenders, he is also inconsistent, and can go several games on end without making much of a dent – there’s a hint, in particular, of a player who can struggle to unlock defences that set up a low block and that refuse him the space he needs to bring his pace to bear. He hasn’t yet developed the technique to reliably play through densely-packed defences.

Fortunately, Spurs’ intense, high-pressing style should suit him, as should playing in the Premier League more generally – when playing with a team like Galatasaray, you spend a lot of time matched up with deep and unambitious defences. That’s less likely in a more even league with a team who look for quick breaks and high turnovers. He would suit Ange Postecoglou’s style down to a tee.

But it’s also arguable that he looks more like an impact sub or, at best, a rotational player, than a difference-maker who will start every game ahead of some like Son Heung-Min or Dejan Kulusevski. He’s unlikely to score goals in the kind of volume that demands that he plays week in, week out, and could end up being a situational call-up rather than someone who makes the difference in the hunt for a top four place.

So should Spurs sign him? Yes, but only if the price is right. At €30m (£25.4m) it starts to get a little bit harder to justify a bid, because one could describe him as a luxury and not a necessity – a player who would offer strong depth and solid competition for a spot, but not wipe out all of the team’s deficiencies ahead of the new season. Whether they can haggle for a price that suits both parties will come down to Levy’s famous wheeler-dealing – and to whether his run of form in Germany can push the price up further and lengthen the queue for his signature.