Lamela - hitting the nail on the head

It all seemed pretty obvious to me at the time and now Erik Lamela has confirmed it, he was incredibly lonely last season.

Erik Lamela


I wrote an article, criticised by someone in the comments section claiming to work for the club, that hit the nail on the head as far as Erik Lamela was concerned. It's a long article and Erik Lamela appears two thirds of the way down, but the whole article is worth a read.

£20,000 would have avoided the Lamela fiasco

Now Tottenham are generally considered to be excellent when it comes to helping foreign players settle, but helping a foreign player settle who doesn't speak the language is an entirely different matter and one that the club fell down on.

I have worked with people who have a different mental outlook than the majority, I have coached them and it is something I have had to deal with for nearly 30 years. When you are day-to-day with people you begin to understand, that's probably a wrong word, you begin to realise when problems are going to occur and what they will be.

Erik Lamela

You know situations that will cause anxiety, how it will affect the individual and you have to decide what is the best course of action. Now don't get me wrong I am not saying Erik Lamela has mental issues, but depression takes many forms and affects people to varying degrees.

The club need to learn from the experience and analyse what they could have done better, I suggest my £20,000 solution would have gone a long way to avoiding the problem in the first place.

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I mentioned that Lamela would be feeling alone and isolated and he has recently spoken about feeling that way.
“Last season was a frustrating one all round for me.
“It took a while to get into the team and then I kept getting injured, which meant I was overlooked by Argentina too.
“Moving to a new club is always hard but it is even harder when it is in a new country and you are not able to play.
“A footballer always feels lonely when he cannot play for whatever reason and I felt very lonely at times last season."
He has been home, seen his family, trained in familiar surroundings at his old club in Argentina, got over his back problems and had time to take in a bit more of the language. He is in a happy place at the moment with an Argentinian head coach he can communicate with.

"I am getting in good shape and am determined to show Tottenham the real Erik Lamela this season. I have recovered from my injuries, we have a new manager and I cannot wait to play. I am confident you will see a much better me this season. 
“There have never been any problems with my team-mates, they have been there always. 
“But now my injuries have gone and we have a new manager who is the same nationality as me, I feel as though I have a new lease of life. 
“Leaving Tottenham never once entered my mind, not even when I was feeling at my lowest. 
“I wanted to play but, unfortunately, my injuries meant I couldn’t. That made me feel bad because the club had paid a lot of money for me and I wasn’t even able to get on to the pitch. 
“But I never wanted to leave. I was determined to stay at the club and show everybody — my team-mates, staff and the fans — that I was a good player. 
“Now I feel better and my mind is 100 per cent focused on doing well for Tottenham, like it has always been.”

The young man is certainly in a better frame of mind and the hope is that that will now be transferred into the pitch and we start to see a huge talent emerge. The isolation and loneliness that caused so many problems last season should not be an issue now.

Who cares if Arsenal have signed Sanchez, we have a virtual new signing, a highly talented 22-year-old Argentinian international by the name of Erik Lamela.