It Shows Great Business Skill – Agent Hails Tottenham Hotspur For Duo Deal
Stefano Antonelli, the agent of Tottenham Hotspur side-back Destiny Udogie, has argued that signing his client and Guglielmo Vicario, two first-team players, for relatively low transfer fees, was fantastic business on the part of Spurs.
Ange Postecoglou, the new manager of Tottenham, was tipped to add new players this summer and now has a fresh roster at his disposal.
Vicario, a goalkeeper, joined from Empoli for €19 million, and Udogie left Udinese for an initial €17.3 million fee plus performance-related bonuses.
The majority of transactions in the Premier League, Antonelli emphasized, cost at least €25 million and €30 million, and he thought it was excellent business on the part of Spurs to pay such low transfer fees for two players who would be in the starting eleven.
According to Antonelli, who spoke to Sky Italia, “The Premier League, as we know, is an economically extreme world, and taking two players as starters for so little is almost a unique case and is a symptom of great business skill.”
“Everything that happens in the Premier League is above €25 to €30 million; Chelsea, for instance, paid €80 million to sign [Marc] Cucurella.”
The two former Serie A players will be willing to put in a lot of effort to establish themselves in the Premier League through their performances for the north Londoners.
In a related development:
Spurs: Levy had a nightmare on £23m signing who eventually left for £0
A prominent signing recently left the club on a free transfer, which the Tottenham chairman witnessed.
In 2018, Tottenham acquired Lucas Moura from Paris Saint-Germain for about £23 million. Moura had a rocky tenure at Tottenham despite being a cult figure, and he was never able to match his outstanding performance in the Champions League semi-final.In his greatest season at Tottenham, Moura scored 15 goals, but his goal total dropped in the following campaigns, and in his final season with the team, he failed to make a single league start.
Tottenham Hotspur saw a summer of transition, with the most prominent departure being the sale of Harry Kane, the Englishman’s £100 million club record goal scorer.
The 30-year-old goal machine was followed out the door by fellow academy graduate Harry Winks, who inked a £10 million deal to join Championship outfit Leicester City, while Davinson Sanchez was another survivor of the Mauricio Pochettino era to have permanently moved on, joining Galatasaray for a reported fee of £12.8 million.
Along with a number of other loan players leaving, notably Djed Spence, who joined Joe Rodon at Leeds United, the north Londoners also lost small attacker Lucas Moura, who had been with N17 for just over five years.
The seasoned Brazilian was originally acquired from Paris Saint-Germain back in January 2018, but the 31-year-old was released this summer after chairman Daniel Levy suffered a large loss on his first investment.
How much did Tottenham pay for Lucas Moura?
Levy and Pochettino were interested in the quick-footed speedster because of his impressive performance for the Ligue 1 giants at the Parc des Princes in France, where he amassed 94 goals and assists in 229 games in all competitions.
With the goal of adding more firepower to players like Harry Kane and Heung-min Son, the winger’s impressive, trophy-laden time in Paris convinced Spurs to shell out almost £23 million to bring him to England.
While not always a consistent member of the team over the ensuing few seasons, Moura did solidify his “cult hero” reputation after his spectacular hat-trick against Ajax propelled the team to its first-ever Champions League final in 2019.
How much did Tottenham sell Moura for?
After looking back, it would seem that the 35-cap international’s 2018–19 season was his best while wearing a Tottenham jersey, as he scored 15 goals across all competitions, including ten goals in 32 league games.
Moura would astonishingly score just ten goals in the top tier over the course of the following four seasons after that outstanding campaign, possibly as a result of Pochettino’s dismissal in November 2019.
It is puzzling that Levy would not agree to authorize the winger’s departure last summer despite reports of interest from clubs like Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur. The winger’s troubles were particularly clear in his final season at the club as he failed to start a single league game under Antonio Conte and company.
As it turned out, the Lilywhites eventually let the underwhelming shooter to leave at the conclusion of his contract in June, failing to return any of their initial investment in the former PSG player.
Despite Moura’s total of 39 goals and 27 assists in 221 games across all competitions, some may argue that the forgotten figure should have been allowed to leave much sooner due to his decline in the hierarchy. The 2018 move may not have quite gone as intended.
