Ivan Perisic has enjoyed an excellent career but there’s a good chance he looks back on his time at Tottenham Hotspur somewhat ruefully.
Signed on a free by Antonio Conte in 2022 after his contract with Inter Milan expired, the veteran playmaker showed flashes of quality in testing circumstances before seeing his time in London cruelly ended last September after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament.
The 35-year-old’s contract was set for expiry at the end of the campaign but he was granted a loan move to his Croatian homeland in January, joining Hadjuk Split with the view to making the move permanent in the summer.
Perisic 🔗 Richy pic.twitter.com/9HQxNVZWIB
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) September 17, 2023
He’s old and battered by an unfortunate injury and it’s only natural that his market value would plummet, especially given his contract situation, but believe it or not he’s still worth more than Alex Pritchard, who has really fallen by the wayside after a promising beginning with Spurs.
Why Spurs sold Alex Pritchard
Snapped up from London rivals West Ham United as a youth, Pritchard was on the books at Tottenham but only featured twice for the seniors during this phase of his career, making his Premier League debut under Tim Sherwood against Aston Villa back in 2014.
PL: Spurs Line-up vs Aston Villa (05/11/2014)
GK – Hugo Lloris
RB – Kyle Naughton
CB – Michael Dawson (C)
CB – Vlad Chiriches
LB – Danny Rose
CM – Paulinho
CM – Sandro
RW – Glyfri Sigurdsson [A. Pritchard, 83′]
LW – Christian Eriksen
ST – Emmanuel Adebayor
ST – Harry Kane
Sourced via Transfermarkt
An attacking midfielder with bags of skill, Pritchard earned praise from fellow graduate Harry Kane around that time, though Kane has seen his career go down a different track since.
“He’s a flair player, exciting to watch and every time he gets the ball you are waiting for him to take a player on or do a trick or two. He’s also got a great delivery and can finish, so he has all the ability.”
While Pritchard, now aged 30, had some promise, he’d never really demonstrated it with the regularity that would have earned him a regular spot in the senior Spurs squad, so it was somewhat surprising when Norwich City swooped in and secured his services for £8m back in 2016, with Mauricio Pochettino taking the squad to a new level and finding no place for this ace.
Alex Pritchard and Tottenham teammates
It might have been something of a disappointment for the former England U21 international at the time, but his pathway since has proved that shipping him out was the right move, and, moreover, the fee collected surpassed anything near the apt figure that the Canaries should have presented.
Alex Pritchard’s market value in 2024
Pritchard has had something of a nomadic career, playing for four different outfits and principally playing his football in the Championship, indeed plying his trade for Birmingham City at present.
According to Football Transfers’ player valuation model, Pritchard is currently worth just £1.2m, which marks a significant 85% decrease from the fee Tottenham collected nearly eight years ago.
This small figure places him below Perisic’s current value of £1.8m and just slightly above 36-year-old Fraser Forster’s £1.1m projected price tag, hardly speaking of a quality fit for the Premier League.
For an attacking midfielder, five direct goal contributions from 48 Premier League fixtures is a return that underscores the success Tottenham found in selling Pritchard for an £8m figure that, while small in itself, was more than Norwich should have paid.
ivan-perišić-tottenham-hotspur
While Pritchard had earned praise for his “fiery” personality and “unique” qualities by manager Tony Mowbray, he’s unfortunately only eked out a portion of the quality that was dreamt of when impressing during his fledgling phase at the Lilywhites youth academy.
Spurs’ decision to sell was, in hindsight, a brilliant move – Daniel Levy’s powers of negotiation sure shone through with this one.
