DONE DEAL: Dilan Markanday finalizes transfer to Blackburn

It’s officially official — Tottenham Hotspur and Blackburn Rovers today announced via social media that they have reached a formal agreement for the transfer of 20 year old academy graduate and striker Dilan Markanday.

Markanday was a prolific scorer this season for Spurs’ U23 side in the Premier League 2, netting 12 goals and five assists in 14 matches in all competitions. He’s been purposefully running his contract at Spurs down — it expires in June — to maximize his options and because he saw his path to the first team blocked. Markanday no doubt sees not only Harry Kane in front of him, but also Troy Parrott and Dane Scarlett, two more academy strikers who are currently ahead of him in the pecking order. He wants first team football, and will get it with Blackburn, who are currently third in the Championship and are pushing for promotion to the Premier League.

Neither Spurs nor Rovers announced the transfer fee, but it was previously reported to be £500k initially, rising as high as £1m, and with a hefty sell-on clause attached as well. That’s low for an academy striker, and Markanday’s sale has raised all sorts of issues with those who follow Tottenham’s youth development.

What you CAN say is that this is almost certainly the ideal outcome for Dilan. At Blackburn he’ll get opportunities to play in a very good league, and if he’s lucky he can help Rovers get promoted, thus ensuring he’s a Premier League footballer next season. It’s about as good as he can hope for.

Spurs may (or may not!) eventually rue selling him for so cheap this January, but all things must end. Dilan Markanday’s time at Spurs now officially has.