In amongst all of the speculation on the January transfer window rumour mill, fans across European football always begin to pay a little bit more attention when reports surface suggesting that deals have now been agreed between clubs, even if only provisionally so, and apparently Tottenham Hotspur have achieved just that with Italian Serie A side Genoa.
A report from Germany’s arm of broadcaster Sky Sports claimed an exclusive earlier on Tuesday morning, and Florian Plettenberg suggested that the English Premier League side had now stolen a match on their competition in the race for the very highly rated 21 year old centre half, who already has 13 full Romanian caps to his name.
With German Bundesliga side Bayern Munich also heavily reported to be in for him, Sky claimed they would have to move quickly and submit a formal offer, as Genoa had apparently now already accepted a transfer fee of 25 million Euros, with unspecified additional add ons and had offered the player a firm, and presumably acceptable contract offer, taking him through until the summer of 2029.
With manager Ange Postecoglou continuing to try and shake up his first team squad having taken on the job at White Hart Lane last summer, a number of players – including England international Eric Dier – have been side lined. So their interest in Dragusin, given his own performance levels, probably speaks for itself as the 58 year old former Australian international gaffer looks for further competition, and more depth, alongside current favoured options Cristian Romero and Mickey van de Ven.
Whilst it is believed Bayern, and any other interested parties still have some time to make a move if they want to compete, given it seems that it is only the smaller finer details that need to be signed off on, that period of time will be very brief indeed as it feels like this deal is basically now done and dusted.
He will be a big miss for Genoa and their fans given how well he was impressing in the Italian game, and for a young centre half, he was also showing signs of developing quite a decent goalscoring threat as well. Having spent 18 odd months at the club, he will now likely depart having played in 62 games across all competitions for them, returning a pretty impressive six goals.
There will undoubtedly be those in ll Grifone’s fan base who will keep a keen eye on how he does in a different division, as this lad seems to have almost everything needed to reach the very highest levels of the game, and it might not be too long before he moves on again – and Genoa may well have a sell on clause included.
