In mid June there were claims in the UK media that Tottenham Hotspur had made a £50m offer to sign Take Kubo from Real Sociedad.
The Spanish reaction, as we covered at the time, was that such an offer hadn’t arrived at La Real. There’d been no bid from Spurs or anyone else for that matter, and everyone’s mind was on hoping the 23-year-old could get back to his best form after the summer.
Last season, the attacker scored seven goals and contributed five assists in 41 matches. However his performances dropped quite a bit after returning from the Asia Cup, where he’d been representing Japan.
There was only a single goal and assist between February and the end of the season.
The Basque edition of Mundo Deportivo now reports Take Kubo has been training over the summer to try and make sure he’s in the best possible shape when he starts official pre-season today.
Mundo say that after ‘a season of contrasts’ he wants to recover ‘the best football version’ of himself.
Tottenham interest gets a mention, as does the mythical £50m offer, which it’s again made clear was something produced by the English media.
It didn’t arrive, and if it had done after the difficult end to the season then Tottenham would have had a decent chance of success. Transfermarkt currently value the player at €50m, and his Real Sociedad contract has a €60m buyout clause.
Such is his determination to get back to his best, the player himself has dismissed going to the Olympics.