“Very upset” – Two Tottenham players had to be separated after crazy dressing room brawl
Tottenham paid around £23m to bring Lucas Moura to England from Paris Saint-Germain in 2018.
Despite his cult hero status, Moura’s time at Tottenham was a mixed spell, and he was never able to replicate his standout performance in the Champions League semi-final.
Moura scored 15 goals in his best season at Tottenham, but his goal tally declined in subsequent seasons, and he failed to start a single league game in his final season at the club.
It proved to be a summer of change for Tottenham Hotspur, with the most notable departure having been the sale of club record goalscorer, Harry Kane, following the Englishman’s £100m move to Bayern Munich.
The 30-year-old goal machine was followed out the door by fellow academy graduate Harry Winks who sealed a £10m switch to Championship side, Leicester City, while Davinson Sanchez was another remnant of the Mauricio Pochettino era to have moved on permanently, joining Galatasaray for a reported fee of £12.8m.
Aside from a raft of further loan departures – including Djed Spence following Joe Rodon to Leeds United – the north Londoners also saw diminutive forward, Lucas Moura move on to pastures new after just over five years on the books at N17.
The experienced Brazilian had originally been snapped up from Paris Saint-Germain back in January 2018, although the 31-year-old was sent packing this summer with chairman Daniel Levy making a sizeable loss on his initial investment.
How much did Tottenham pay for Lucas Moura?
The fleet-footed speedster had caught the attention of Levy and Pochettino following his standout form in France at the Parc des Princes, having racked up 94 goals and assists in 229 games in all competitions for the Ligue 1 giants.
That impressive, trophy-laden spell in Paris persuaded Spurs to fork out around £23m in order to bring the winger to England, with the winter arrival tasked with providing further firepower alongside the likes of Harry Kane and Heung-min Son.
While not always a regular fixture of the side over the next few years, Moura did cement his “cult hero” status – as per pundit Paul Robinson – following his remarkable hat-trick against Ajax to fire the club to a maiden Champions League final in 2019.
That stellar showing came as a significant high point in an otherwise mixed spell in north London for the 5 foot 8 enigma, as he was never able to truly kick on from that thrilling night in Amsterdam.
How much did Tottenham sell Moura for?
On reflection, it would appear that the 2018/19 season was as good as it got for the 35-cap international in a Tottenham jersey, as he scored 15 goals in all competitions, including bagging ten goals in 32 league appearances.
Following on from that standout season, Moura would remarkably score just ten top-flight goals across the next four seasons combined, having perhaps suffered as a result of the sacking of Pochettino in November 2019.
The winger’s woes were particularly evident in his final season at the club as he failed to start a single league game under Antonio Conte and co, with it somewhat perplexing that Levy did not agree to sanction his departure last summer – amid reported interest from the likes of Newcastle United and Aston Villa.
As it proved, the Lilywhites ultimately allowed the misfiring marksman to leave at the end of his contract back in June, with the club unable to recoup any of their initial investment in the former PSG man.
There may be those who believe that the forgotten figure should have been allowed to depart far sooner amid his slide down the pecking order, with the 2018 transfer having perhaps not quite gone as expected, despite Moura’s haul of 39 goals and 27 assists in 221 games in all competitions.
