Tottenham reportedly bidding for teenage French striker

Tottenham Hotspur aren’t expected to make a very big splash in the January transfer window this month, but Spurs might be tempted to make a few calculated gambles for the future. According to L’Equipe (paywall), one player they’re looking at, and have reportedly made an offer for, is 17-year old French striker Calvin Tshilumba.

So what do we know about this kid? Well, not much. Tshilumba is in the process of breaking into the first team for Ligue 2 side Laval; he had his first team debut very recently when he came on for a nine minute cameo in Laval’s 3-1 Coupe de France loss to US Avranches. He’s received a couple of caps for France at the U16 and U17 level.

That’s about all there is on him. L’Equipe suggests that Spurs aren’t the only team looking at him either, so there’s probably a decent nugget of talent there, but he’s pretty much a complete unknown.

It’s not exactly the big-time splash signing that Spurs fans love to see in transfer windows, and if Spurs were to go after him it’s almost certain that he would slot into the development squad a la Shilow Tracey. In fact, Tracey might be the model to use here: he’s a prospect. Probably whoever signs him will get him for stupid cheap money, and are banking on a low-risk high-reward development process. Maybe he’ll work out, and maybe he won’t.

Spurs have had pretty good luck in recent years in bringing talent out of their development squad, so there’s probably good reasons to trust that whatever they’re doing with acquiring young players it’s working, for the most part. And of course, this is a transfer rumor and not a done deal.

But hey, we’re not signing Morgan Schneiderlin (sob) so we’ll take what we can get, right?