DONE DEAL: Tottenham sign Ireland U19 keeper Josh Keeley

Lost in the chaos of yesterday’s Yves Bissouma news was the reporting of a new Tottenham Hotspur signing. According multiple outlets including The Evening Standard and Alasdair Gold in Football.London, Spurs have secured the services of 19 year old Irish keeper Josh Keeley from St. Patrick’s Athletic.

Keeley has reportedly been on trial at a number of clubs as he tried to find a club at which he can advance into the next stage of his career, and it’s Spurs that ended up nabbing him. He is, by all accounts, a very talented footballer, having represented Ireland at every youth stage up to the U19s thus far.

Apparently, he can also cross a ball too.

I don’t have a whole lot of Josh Keeley takes, so sorry if you’re looking for those. It’s clear that he’s being signed as a development player and is likely going to slot directly into Tottenham’s U23s as one of the keeper options. It’s also interesting that Spurs signed a keeper after offloading a metric ton of academy grads and keepers just a couple of weeks ago — Kacper Kurylowicz, Thimothee Lo-Tutala, Josh Oluwayemi, and Isak Solberg all left the club or were released at the end of their contracts, representing literally all of Spurs’ existing U23 keepers. Keeley is likely going to find a home there along with second year scholar keepers Adam Hayton and Aaron Maguire.

There hasn’t been a formal announcement about Keeley from the club and we’re unlikely to get one — Spurs typically doesn’t do announcement posts for development players except in unusual circumstances or on deadline day. Still, it’s good that Spurs are also concentrating on snapping up youth and developing players in addition to established first teamers this summer.