Yesterday, news broke that Tottenham Hotspur had an £8m bid for 19-year-old Brazilian left back Souza rejected by Santos in the Campeoanato Brazileiro, with the club reportedly holding out for closer to £15m. That made people upset for various reasons stemming from an underbid for a player with a £100m release clause in his contract, to focusing attention on another young up-and-comer instead of an established fullback to deputize or compete with Destiny Udogie.
It’s hard to know what to make of Souza, since his stats are all based on about a year and a half of first team football in Brazil. That said, Souza profiles as an Athlete™ with some serious physical tools who is good at duels and crosses and especially adept at drawing fouls, but pretty dang raw everywhere else. That’s actually not necessarily the worst target if we’re looking for a natural left-sided fullback. Consider — Destiny is injured a lot, but it’s going to be a harder sell to spend bigger money for a more experienced left back that will be content to be a backup but might not actually fit the system Spurs have in place (or want to put in place). Consider also that spending, let’s say £12m (which is nothing in today’s market), for a young and hungry Brazilian with some upside might leave some significant funds left over with which Spurs could use to purchase, IDK, Maghnes Akliouche, or throw gobs of money at Crystal Palace for Adam Wharton. I’m not saying that will happen, but it COULD. Choose hope.
Also important to note here that while Ben Jacobs gets a lot of inside information, he tends to report whatever it is that people tell him, frequently uncritically. So take all of this with a grain of salt.
I guess I’m just looking for the upside here. Will this move the needle with jittery Spurs fans who are looking from some serious intent from Johan Lange in the January transfer window? Doubtful. But it’s not nothing.