REPORT: Spurs close to transfer agreement for Destiny Udogie

We weren’t expecting Tottenham Hotspur to make another signing for a while, but that just tells you why you should always be prepared for things to go against your expectations. Jason Burt in the Telegraph is writing today that Tottenham is close to an agreement to sign 19-year old defender Destiny Udogie from Udinese.

The Telegraph notes “sources in Italy” that suggest that a deal of around £21m has been agreed for the purchase of Udogie, with him likely being loaned back to Udinese for the upcoming season. This would be similar to the deal that Tottenham Managing Director of Football worked out with Metz for Pape Matar Sarr last summer.

Udogie played 2400 minutes at Udinese last season as an 18 year old, mostly at left wingback, scoring five goals and tallying three assists. It’s a pretty impressive campaign for a kid who only had 170 first team minutes at Hellas Verona two seasons ago, and he looks pretty dang exciting.

I’m not going to pretend that I know a whole lot about Destiny Udogie. But if these reports are accurate, it’s pretty smart business. A lot of words have been written so far this summer and before about Tottenham building a team that can find success NOW. The signings of Udogie and to a similar extent Djed Spence, Pape Matar Sarr, and Bryan Gil, shows that Tottenham is also working towards what will come next.

Ivan Perisic is an excellent player and will raise Tottenham’s ceiling this year, but he’s not sticking around for long — 34 year old players, even very good ones, simply don’t. But Udogie looks like a youngster who could develop into a player who could compete with Ryan Sessegnon for that LWB spot in future seasons. He’s young enough that he’s not going to command a super large fee, and his upside is massive. This would be a bit of a lottery ticket signing, but if Spurs don’t make these kinds of small gambles, other clubs will.

Lately, these out-of-nowhere moves have gone from rumor to official @SpursOfficial tweet at light-speed. If Udogie is truly Tottenham’s seventh signing of the window, we may not have to wait long for his signing, but we may have to be patient in order to see if his impact at Spurs is truly... well, magnificent. And that’s just fine with me.