With central defender deals stalled, Tottenham considering return for Fulham’s Adarabioyo

Tottenham Hotspur want at least one new central defender this summer. The problem is everyone knows that and have jacked up their prices accordingly. That’s the summarization of a recent article from Alasdair Gold in Footbal.London that attempts to explain why the news about deals for Edmond Tapsoba and Micky van de Ven has all but dried up over the past few weeks.

The deals for Tapsoba and van de Ven are not thought to be dead, but they’ve stalled for various reasons while Spurs have been on their preseason tour. But with the summer hurtling toward a conclusion and the Premier League season looming, Tottenham need a solution, and it may force them to look at other options, including Tosin Adarabioyo.

The Fulham defender is likely familiar to Spurs fans as his was a name that emerged early on as one of the possibilities to bring in this summer. Adarabioyo is young, talented, and importantly, homegrown. That said, Tapsoba and van de Ven, both identified by Spurs’ newly-acquired stats nerds, were both ahead of him on the wish list.

But Spurs have to do something at this point, and according to Gold it might force them to make a move for Adarabioyo before other interested clubs make moves of their own. That’s the thinking, anyway. Gold also mentions Crystal Palace duo Marc Guehi and Joachim Andersen as additional possibilities.

Whatever happens, it needs to start happening now. There’s less than a month until Tottenham’s first league match of the season, away to Brentford on August 13. That’s not a lot of time to get someone new into the system and teach them what to do in Ange Postecoglou’s tactics. We know what Spurs’ preferences are, but it sounds like they might have make some tough decisions in the days ahead.