Fabio Coentrao: Has the tools to star at Spurs

Just four summers ago, the dream move had turned sour for the youngster from Southampton. Gareth Bale was two years and 23 winless league games into his time at Tottenham and had lost his place in the first team to uncapped defender Benoit Assou-Ekotto. Famously labelled a flop, there were reports Bale could be offloaded to - horror of horrors - Birmingham City. The following year he scored a hat-trick in the San Siro and the journey to superstardom had truly begun. The left-back was converted into a left-winger.

Also in that summer of 2009, over in Lisbon, there were changes too. In a bid to limit the wait to five years - their second longest since the foundation of the Portuguese championship in 1934 - Benfica had turned to Braga boss Jorge Jesus. A fiery coach with a keen mind, Jesus spotted something in the club's unruly young prospect Fabio Coentrao. The left-winger was converted into a left-back.

Such is the relative status of the two positions, it is no surprise that Bale is the player who is the subject of a - *counts on hand* - nine figure bid. But that is not to say Coentrao's rise has not been significant in the intervening period too. This is the man that Cristiano Ronaldo described as "one of the best players in the world" upon the Benfica man's arrival in Madrid to fanfare of his own. Coentrao is capable of being far more than a mere makeweight.