Spurs on verge of signing 17 year old midfielder from Ebbsfleet United

The transfer window hasn't exactly started with a bang for Tottenham Hotspur. Daniel Levy has reportedly turned down an opening bid from Sevilla for wantaway center back Federico Fazio. While that story is sure to have more chapters to it, it does appear that Tottenham are on the verge of completing their first signing of the window.

Kent Online is reporting that 17-year-old Ebbsfleet United midfielder Shilow Tracey has completed a medical and all that's left is for the teenager to put his name on the dotted line.

Tracey is now on the verge of completing a sensational move to Tottenham, where Fleet boss Daryl McMahon worked as an academy coach before taking his first management job at Stonebridge Road.

McMahon said: "Tottenham’s a great club. They’ve got great coaches there, a brilliant philosophy, they bring players through, they believe in nurturing talent and they don’t make robots.

"If you look at the young players they’ve got there, they're exciting players, not the sort of bog-standard, safe players that you see at a lot of other clubs."

McMahon heaps praise on Tottenham all the way around and is obviously resigned to the fact that he's about to lose a promising young player, but this isn't a shock to him. Ebbsfleet United are in National League South, formerly known as Conference South, which is the sixth division of the English Football Association. To McMahon's credit, he seems absolutely delighted that a player of his is being purchased by a Premier League side.

A transfer fee has not been reported as of yet, but if you want an idea of how much it will cost Tottenham, Swansea City made a bid for Tracey back in the summer window. The bid was supposedly for £250,000 so we can expect something at least in that ballpark.

Reading further into the transfer, it would appear that Ebbsfleet are so impressed by the way the transfer has been handled that a partnership is forming between the two clubs. This article from the Express talks briefly about the relationship as well as giving us a bit of information on the teenager.

Tracey is comfortable playing either in central midfield or further forward behind a striker, although he has only featured once for Fleet's first team.

The deal would continue Tottenham's policy of putting trust in young talent following the success of players like Harry Kane, Dele Alli, Eric Dier, Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb under manager Mauricio Pochettino.

It is also believed Ebbsfleet have been pleased with Tottenham's handling of the transfer and the Vanarama National League South side are keen to maintain a close relationship between the clubs in future.

This is great news. After hearing the reports of chairmen absolutely hating Daniel Levy (looking at you, Jeremy Peace) and the way he does business, it's refreshing to see the club being praised for how a transaction has occurred. Of course, Ebbsfleet are getting a nice chunk of cash for a kid who has impressed and that kind of money helps immensely at this level of football.

All that's left to report on this is when the club formally announces the signing, and that appears to be imminent.