Spurs complete transfer of Shilow Tracey from Ebbsfleet

Tottenham Hotspur have completed their first signing of the January transfer window. According to Ebbsfleet United's website, midfielder Shilow Tracey is now a Tottenham player, moving to White Hart Lane for an undisclosed fee.

PLAYER NEWS: Tottenham complete signing of Shilow Tracey from #EUFC: https://t.co/iT84xTeKk6

— Ebbsfleet United FC (@EUFCofficial) January 13, 2016

Ebbsfleet Vice Chairman Peter Varney said on Ebbsfleet's website that he was happy to see Tracey move to a big club:

"This is a fantastic opportunity for Shilow and we are proud of the fact that our youth academy is producing quality young players just one year after we set it up.

"I would like to thank Spurs for the professional manner in which they have handled the transfer negotiations. I must also recognise the work done with Shilow by Daryl McMahon and his staff in our youth academy."

The 17 year old Tracey is highly rated by football scouts, even though he had yet to break through into Ebbsfleet's senior side. While details of the transfer were not made public, it appears as though Tracey will slot into Spurs' development sides and will not be loaned back to Ebbsfleet like Dele Alli after his signing from MK Dons last January.

Youth development is in a lot of ways a guessing game. Spurs fans should not expect Tracey to feature for Tottenham's first team for a long time, if at all. Still, it's nice to see Spurs continuing to work towards developing the next generation of Tottenham talent by identifying and snapping up quality players from the lower leagues.

Welcome to Tottenham, Shilow!