It’s a bit of a given, but one of Tottenham Hotspur’s newest signings can now officially start training. Football.London is reporting that Japanese central defender Kota Takai has officially received his work permit and joined the squad today in preseason.
You figured this was coming eventually. Spurs aren’t in the habit of signing overseas players without confidence and assurances that the player in question will receive a work permit, and that’s exactly what’s happened. It does, sometimes, take a while though, and Takai’s paperwork I guess only came through today.
But that should be plenty of time for Thomas Frank and his staff to get a good look at him, and have him start learning the ropes. Tottenham’s first preseason friendly is this Saturday when they head to Madejski (or “Select Car Leasing”) Stadium to play Reading, and it wouldn’t shock me at all if Takai gets a good amount of minutes in the back line for that match. I’m intrigued to see what kind of a player he is and how long it takes him to adjust to the speed and intensity of high-level English football.
Speaking of the Reading match, thus far the only place I’ve seen it scheduled to be streamed is on SpursPLAY, Tottenham’s in-house premium streaming network. You might be able to register to watch Reading’s stream of the match on their website, but honestly I didn’t look into it enough to know whether you’d have to pay money to view it.