Tottenham being made to regret letting Christian Eriksen join Man Utd

Tottenham are being made to regret not re-signing Christian Eriksen on a free transfer after the Dane again inspired Manchester United to victory against West Ham on Sunday. The playmaker produced a superb cross for Marcus Rashford to score the only goal of the game at Old Trafford in a 1-0 win.

Eriksen, as with United’s other summer signings such as Lisandro Martinez and Casemiro, has had a huge impact under Erik ten Hag. While he has yet to score and has only three Premier League assists to his name this term – six less than Kevin De Bruyne – he has become a meticulous midfield metronome for the Red Devils.

He is simply undroppable for United. The 30-year-old’s incisive progressive passing has hugely improved United and it is his forward-thinking approach that Spurs appear to be missing. While the north Londoners came from 2-0 down to beat Bournemouth 3-2 on Saturday, the performance left a lot to be desired.

And Antonio Conte’s team would surely be more free-flowing with Eriksen pulling the strings from central midfield. Tottenham are being made to pay for not showing the same determination to land the Denmark No 10 as United did in the summer transfer window.

Conte and co cooled their interest in Eriksen despite him being available on a free. The player explained: “They never really came with anything so it wasn’t really a thing for me to go back to Tottenham at the time and Man United were very early on, very positive and I had good conversations.

“It was very positive from the first few phone calls already and the club felt like they wanted me, so it was on for a long time.” United are now reaping the benefits with Eriksen their tempo setter in the middle. He is thriving as Casemiro’s partner in a 4-2-3-1 formation and he is showing Spurs, unfortunately for Conte, that he could have been ideal for them as one of three midfielders in a 5-3-2.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Yves Bissouma and Oliver Skipp started at Bournemouth, with Eriksen superior creatively than all three. Though that is not Spurs’ first-choice midfield – which would contain Rodrigo Bentancur – even with the Uruguayan starting, there would still be a spot in the XI for Eriksen. He could even have played as one of the two forwards behind Harry Kane in a 3-4-2-1.

Instead, though, Eriksen landed at United where he will strut his stuff until at least the summer of 2025, rendering a return to Spurs highly unlikely. Given Spurs have no midfielders quite like Eriksen, with Giovani Lo Celso possibly set to depart for good in January, ignoring his availability on a free feels like quite the oversight.

It is not as if Conte was not aware of his qualities, saying back in April: “For sure, to work again with Christian is a fantastic opportunity because I enjoyed the time we spent together in Inter Milan. When you have this type of player – a great player, a good man – I think every manager, every coach likes to work with them.”

But ultimately the decision was not made to bring Eriksen back to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. It’s one United are thankful for, and one Conte – and Spurs fans – must be questioning.