Kyle Naughton may be a useful component in Tottenham’s squad, but that’s not what the club needs in the ranks.
Villas-Boas needs genuine competition for places, not just a selection of half-decent squad men and although that might represent an extremely harsh evaluation of Naughton’s status within this team, it’s not without gravitas.
Considering the dreadful form that Kyle Walker’s been in for most of this season, Naughton will never get a better opportunity to force his way into a starting berth on his favoured right-hand side.
Yet still, Villas-Boas has preferred to keep faith with the struggling Walker, instead using Naughton as a stop-gap on the left-hand side for when Benoit Assou-Ekotto has been unavailable. And even then, the Portuguese preferred to shift his outstanding centre-back in Jan Vertonghen out wide during the majority of the Cameroon international’s injury – hardly a vote of confidence in Naughton’s ability.
When he has played, while he’s not done an awful lot wrong, he’s not produced anything much above the minimum expected from a Premier League full-back and with the designs that Spurs have pushing forward, it could be time to let him go this summer.
