Tottenham will most likely fail to make the Champions League places and a summer clearout is highly expected. Numerous well known players will face the chop and Brazilian Paulinho should be at the top of that list.

When Gareth Bale left for Real Madrid in the summer of 2013 Spurs needed to find a prolific goal scorer to make up the deficit.

Spurs went on a huge spending spree signing the likes of Roberto Soldado, Erik Lamela and former Corinthians midfielder Paulinho in a bid to rejuvenate the squad.

The 26-year-old cost the North London club just under £17million and was highly rated at the time as a box-to-box midfielder who had strong defensive qualities and was good from set pieces. But in his two seasons Paulinho has failed to make any real impact.

Last year he made 28 league starts for the first team while that has dropped to just two for 2014/15.

The Brazilian has obviously lost the faith of his new manager and if he does survive the window then he’ll probably have a similarly frustrating season as his last two. So is he to blame for his poor performances or has he just suffered from the lack of cohesion and consistency at White Hart Lane since his arrival?

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In Mauricio Pochettino’s first year as Spurs boss he has had a decent season notching up confidence-building wins against Arsenal and Chelsea. It would be unfair to expect the Argentine to get this ragtag group of players to break into the top four when at times there were roughly seven teams competing to do just that.

The Lilywhites have suffered much uncertainty in recent times owing to the quick hiring and firing that has resulted in two new managers arriving at White Hart Lane in the space of a year. And now that the club seem happy with Pochettino this summer he will likely be allowed to further stamp his mark on the underachieving squad which certainly does not look good for Paulinho.

Although the club has lacked stability Paulinho still hasn’t been good enough and a move in the summer is probably his best option. His lack of impact is likely to reduce his chances of moving to a big team and instead he may need to just get away from the Premier League and work on rebuilding his reputation. At his age he still has time to salvage his career but he will need to find a club where he gets to play more regularly that he has.

It is hard to believe it now but when the midfielder joined he was actually a record signing for the club and supporters were excited to have such a player among their ranks. Now he is surplus to requirements with Christian Eriksen dominating his central role. There is a similar situation for Paulinho at international level with the Brazilian squad. He has failed to make it into Dunga’s starting XI and with the Copa America on the horizon he is unlikely to feature at all for them.

Things are getting worse for Paulinho at both domestic and international level and after two seasons without really producing much, Pochettino and Spurs should not let him stick around for a third try.

Better to cut their losses than carry deadweight.

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