It’s the end of an era at Tottenham Hotspur and their supporters are devastated.
Over the last six and a half seasons, Mousa Dembele has developed into one of the finest box-to-box midfielders in Europe with a gaggle of team-mates and opponents hailing him as one of the best in his position.
The Belgian, blessed with exquisite technique and superhuman strength, will be sorely after he completed an £11million move to Guangzhou R&F.
So good was Dembele, manager Mauricio Pochettino compared him to some of the world’s best players, including Diego Maradona.
“I always tell him, ‘Mousa, when I write a book, you’ll be one of my genius players I have been lucky to meet,’” the Argentine said in April 2017 and repeated in the book, Brave New World.
“One was [Diego] Maradona, then Ronaldinho, [Jay-Jay] Okocha and [Ivan] De La Pena. He is a genius too, Mousa Dembele. We always told him, ‘If we had taken you at 18 or 19 years old, you would have become one of the best players in the world.’ I would have loved to have taken him on at 18.”
Meanwhile, Eric Dier once commented: “He’s a freak of nature. Physically, he’s a monster but he’s got ballerina feet.”
He will remain a hero for Tottenham fans and they could only, some with tears in their eyes, pay tribute to their departing Dembele.