According to reports in The Mirror, Tottenham Hotspur are looking to either sign Swansea City centre-back Alfie Mawson or Middlesbrough defender Ben Gibson this summer, and they are willing to sell the £20m-rated Kevin Wimmer to fund the deal.

The Austria international has struggled to make an impression with Spurs ever since he joined from Cologne in 2015, and Mauricio Pochettino is keen to replace him with an English defender before the start of the new season, and is monitoring the situations of both Mawson and Gibson.

Despite struggling to break into the starting line-up with the north London outfit, Tottenham are keen to balance the books and are quoting £20m for Wimmer, according to The Mirror, as they want to sell before making a move for the English duo.

However, the 24-year-old could still be the defender Pochettino wants to be able to play in either a three or four-man defence.

Here are three reasons Tottenham should give Wimmer another chance to impress instead of targeting Gibson or Mawson…

Game time

While Pochettino obviously sees more of Wimmer in training than the supporters or neutrals do, it is difficult to say that the 24-year-old has enough chances to impress in the Tottenham first team.

As is widely known, it can take time to adapt to the Premier League when you move from abroad and having made just 15 English top flight appearances in the last two seasons, the Austria international hasn’t had the consistent run in the side needed to do that.

They will struggle to get £20m

Having signed him for £4.3m in 2015 and with the player making just 31 appearances for the club since, Tottenham are certainly going to struggle to get the £20m they want for the 24-year-old, no matter how inflated transfer fees are right now.

To be honest, considering his lack of playing time they would be lucky to get half of that, and they would probably be better off coaching and developing the 24-year-old rather than selling him for that price and bringing in either Mawson or Gibson – who would likely cost a lot more because they are English.

Potential

While he has struggled to compete with Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen, Wimmer is still only 24 years of age and he has shown enough in his Premier League appearances already that he can still be a success at this level – if given an opportunity.

In the 2015/16 campaign he made 10 Premier League appearances and with a passing accuracy of 90%, and having made 50 clearances and 20 interceptions, he showed he has the defensive prowess and quality on the ball to become an even better defender.

Rather than sign Mawson or Gibson, they should work and develop Wimmer as they have done with the likes of Dele Alli and Harry Winks.

Do you agree, Spurs fans? Let us know below.