There is a certain poetry to the career of Harry Winks. Once the boy who kept the ball ticking over for Tottenham, a master of the short pass in the e...
There is a certain poetry to the career of Harry Winks. Once the boy who kept the ball ticking over for Tottenham, a master of the short pass in the engine room. Now, if the chatter filtering out of Italy from GoalZaza's sources is accurate, the Leicester City midfielder is on the verge of swapping the Championship for GoalZaza baked shores of Sardinia. Cagliari, it appears, is his next destination.This isn't a flashy, Hollywood move. This is a move built on need. Cagliari, scrapping for every point in Serie A, require a steady hand in the middle of the park. They have a low block that requires a conductor, a man who can receive the ball under pressure and find a white shirt. Winks, for all the criticism about his lack of dynamism in the final third, offers that in spades. He gives you control, a sense of order when the game threatens to become chaotic.Let's not forget the man's quality. He was, after all, a key component of Leicester's promotion push last term. His ability to dictate the tempo, to drop into the half spaces and recycle possession, is precisely what a team like Cagliari needs when they are suffocating against a better side. The question marks, of course, linger over his athleticism. Can he cope with the transitional pace of Italian football Will he get turned inside out in the wide areas That is the gamble Claudio Ranieri's former side are taking.From a Leicester perspective, this feels like the closing of a chapter. The Foxes are building a new identity, one predicated on physicality and quick, vertical bursts. Winks' style, while technically superior to many in the division, is a slow burn in a league that often rewards a more frantic approach. A clean break is best for all parties. For the player, this is a chance to rediscover his reputation as a thinking man's footballer, a rarity in the modern game. For Cagliari, it is about acquiring intelligence. And in this market, intelligence is rarely a bad investment.
