Tottenham completes £9.8m transfer of Paulinho to Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande

欢迎来到广州，保利尼奥！Welcome to Guangzhou, @paulinhop8 ! pic.twitter.com/w728rF2zE9

— GZ Evergrande FC (@GZEvergrandeFC) June 29, 2015

According to Guangzhou Evergrande's website and twitter, the deal taking Tottenham Hotspur's Brazilian midfielder Paulinho to China has been completed. Paulinho joins his former manager Luiz Felipe Scolari for a fee reported to be £9.8m.

When Paulinho was signed from Corinthians two summers ago, it was seen as a significant move for Tottenham Hotspur. Fresh off a Club World Cup winning campaign in which his Brazilian side took down Chelsea, and a bright showing in the Confederations cup, he was billed as the type of dynamic, box to box midfielder we needed in Andre Villas-Boas' setup. We had all lived through the relative stagnation of Scott Parker and Mousa Dembele in the pivot once Sandro injured his knee and were keen to get some attacking verve back. His 17 million pound transfer fee was a record for the club at the time and expectations were lofty.

Alas, he never met expectations. While popping up with the occasional goal or lively substitute performance, what we expected him to be never matched up with what he was in reality.

Around the holiday period he was the definition of dead weight so this represents a good piece of business for Daniel Levy. While not a total recovery of his initial price, as had been the speculation of early reports, the combination of transfer price plus relief from paying his wages is substantial. Additionally, this clears the way a bit in an already crowded midfield.

In the end, I harbor no ill will towards Paulinho and wish him well in his new endeavors.