Tottenham leading the race for young American international?

Here's a rumor completely out of left field: Tottenham Hotspur are apparently interested in signing United States and Seattle Sounders right back DeAndre Yedlin. According to Taylor Twellman of ESPN, they're the frontrunners to sign him.

Hearing Spurs have jumped ahead of everyone else in Yedlin sweepstakes. He'd stay in Seattle for 2014 before joining Tottenham.

— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) August 6, 2014

Like every other rumored Yedlin deal, the move would include a loan back to Seattle through the end of this MLS season. He's been most strongly linked to Roma, but also to lots of other big Serie A clubs.

From a pure squad perspective, this doesn't make a ton of sense for Tottenham. Kyle Walker is established as the first choice right back, has improved considerably in recent years and is still young. But from a pure value perspective, Yedlin wouldn't be a bad shot in the dark. The rumored price for Yedlin is around $7.5m, or £4.5m. It's a cheap price for a guy with a huge ceiling -- Yedlin is a freak of an athlete and his improvement over the last year and a half has been rapid. Yedlin has also played on the right wing as well as at right back, and it's not clear which position he'll play in the future.

If Spurs were to bring in Yedlin, they probably wouldn't throw him right into the squad in January either. I'd expect a loan to a good Championship or lower-table Premier League team for the second half of the season, then a chance for him to break the first team in the 2015-16 season if he plays well.

For those wondering about the credibility of Twellman -- a retired player and TV analyst -- he's actually pretty good. He's been first and accurate on a lot of MLS and U.S. national team stories over the last couple of years. I put more stock into this than I would a report from any of the British papers.