Report: Tottenham’s Etete tops Portsmouth striker wish-list

Not every talented Tottenham Hotspur youth academy prospect ends up breaking through into the first team, and that’s okay. Young Spurs striker Kion Etete looks like he may be one of those players — a good, young, quality talent but unlikely to feature in the Spurs first XI anytime soon. A new report out today in the Portsmouth News says that Portsmouth FC are taking a long look at Etete as their striker of the future with an eye to a permanent transfer this summer.

Etete has been widely admired by Tottenham youth watchers over the past couple of seasons and had his “breakout” year last season on loan. He spent the first half of the season in League Two with Northampton Town where he was a regular starter, scoring six goals. Spurs recalled him in December and loaned him out again in January, this time up a division with Cheltenham in League One, where he scored another three goals and dished out two assists in ten matches.

That’s put in on Pompey’s radar, and the report states that he’s at the top of their wishlist for the summer. Portsmouth are hoping that a bid of £300k would be enough to land him. That doesn’t seem like a lot of money (and it isn’t), but in the third division it’s somewhat uncommon that you get transfer fees in the millions unless for a top talent in the division. The Portsmouth News also claims that Championship clubs are tracking Etete, but doesn’t go into detail about which clubs are interested.

Etete seems like a player who will likely be moved on this summer, as he’s definitely Football League ready at age 20. My guess is that if a transfer goes through, wherever he goes it’d be somewhere south of £1m, but with a healthy sell-on clause attached. Talented kid, but not Tottenham-ready. And that’s fine — he’ll be a very good pro.