Mathys Tel isn’t the only current Tottenham Hotspur player who has been pushing for the exit door on loan this month. Romanian central defender Radu Dragusin, freshly returned from a knee injury that kept him out nearly a year, has been making noise via his fake agent that he wants to head out on loan to Serie A in order to get minutes. Like with Tel, the push to leave on loan is almost certainly World Cup related — Dragusin wants to be on Romania’s squad for this summer’s tournament in North America, and at present he’s stuck behind Cuti Romero, Micky van de Ven, and Kevin Danso in Spurs’ depth chart. Dragusin has been the subject of rumors taht both Fiorentina and Roma are interested in him.
I totally get the impulse, but just like with Tel’s situation it doesn’t appear as though Spurs are willing to let him go. According to the Sky Sports transfer tracker, Roma even made a bid to take Radu on loan, and Spurs rejected the offer.
Really, I could just copy-paste the reasons why this doesn’t make much sense for Spurs from the Mathys Tel article I posted 15 minutes ago. The biggest reason is that with Kota Taka already out on loan to Gladbach this month, Spurs have five natural CBs on their roster and one of them is Ben Davies. Now, five CBs is (under most circumstances, 2024-25 Tottenham excepted) perfectly adequate depth, but thing start to get really shaky if you go down to four, especially if Davies will be expected to fill in at left back at any point. Spurs look like they’re bringing Souza in this month, but still — letting Radu go would be a risk, unless they bring in another defender, always a tricky thing to do in January.
Now, I think it’s quite possible Radu could depart the club this summer, as he’s at best a depth option for Spurs at CB unless things significantly change. (You could also say that if Radu ever WERE a starting option for Tottenham it means the club has bigger problems than we though.) It might also be the right decision to sell him whenever they can and make space for, say, Luka Vuskovic next season. But I think Spurs would need something better than a “loan plus option” bid to let Dragusin leave now. Just doesn’t make sense to my mind.