Harambee stars captain Victor Wanyama, whose deadline day transfer from Tottenham Hotspurs to Belgium outfit Club Brugge collapsed on Monday, has been included in Spurs’ 25-man squad for the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League group stage.
Tottenham had negotiated a Ksh.1.5 billion deal to sell the Kenyan midfielder to Club Brugge ahead of Monday’s (September 2nd) European transfer deadline, but the proposed move fell through, reportedly because of Wanyama’s wage demands.
Club Brugge have since roped in Colombian player Eder Balanta to replace Wanyama in the defensive midfield position. Wanyama is therefore expected to remain in London until at the very least, January 2020 when the next transfer window opens. He had also been attracting interest from former club, Celtic in the Scottish Premier League.
It however remains to be seen whether Wanyama will actually be picked to play in any of Tottenham Hotspurs group matches given that he has not even made the bench in the North London team’s match day squads for the first four Premier League fixtures of the 2019/20 season.
Tottenham will play German Champions Bayern Munich, Olympiacos from Greece and Serbia’s Red Star Belgrade for the right to progress to the knockout stage of this season’s UEFA Champion’s league. They lost 2-nil to Liverpool in the 2018/19 final.
Wanyama will have to battle it out with other midfielders included in the Tottenham list published in the UEFA website including Moussa Sissoko, Tanguy Ndombele and Christian Eriksen for a place in Manager Mauricio Pochettino’s starting eleven, in which he has since fallen down the pecking order, partly due to constant injuries during the last two seasons.
The Kenyan captain has been ruled out of this Sunday’s friendly international between Harambee Stars and Uganda Cranes at the Kasarani international stadium.