Tottenham started the January transfer window in swift fashion after sealing a deal for Czech Republic Under-21 goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky but he may not have been their first-choice option.
The north London outfit signed the 21-year-old in a deal worth in excess of £10m from Slavia Prague, with Kinsky penning a contract until 2031 after jetting into London on Saturday.
The addition of another stopper is no great surprise given that first-choice Guglielmo Vicario will be out until the end of February at the earliest, while Fraser Forster has made some big errors since stepping up – mostly with his feet – and is also out of contract in the summer anyway.
Brandon Austin made his first start for the club in the 2-1 home defeat to Newcastle due to Forster being ill and acquitted himself well, but bringing in Kinsky gives Ange Postecoglou a quality young option to pick from and a player who is expected to challenge Vicario for the No.1 role going forward.
However, things could have been very different, with several other names on Tottenham‘s list of goalkeeper targets – including Bayern’s Daniel Peretz.
Peretz is nominally Bayern’s rotational keeper but with Manual Neuer picking up an injury just over a week after Vicario fractured his ankle against Manchester City, the 24-year-old has been thrust into regular action with the Bundesliga giants.
Neuer broke a rib in a collision with Jeremie Frimpong in Bayern’s Bundesliga title clash with Bayer Leverkusen, a challenge that also saw him red-carded.
Peretz has started every game since and this development stalled any Tottenham movement for the keeper in the short-term. Indeed, there may have been an opportunity to wait until later in the window and still move for Peretz once Neuer returned. However, with a glut of fixtures coming for the rest of the month, Spurs needed another keeper on board very quickly so Kinsky became the quick fix.
Former coach rates new Tottenham signing highly
Meanwhile, MFK Vyskov goalkeeper coach Rostislav Horacek, who worked with Kinsky at the Czech club during the player’s loan spell, gave an insight into the talented stopper’s strengths, weaknesses and so much more in an interview with Flashscore back in October.
“We probably don’t need to talk about goalkeeping skills, but Tonda [Kinsky] has a great head,” explained the 57-year-old. “He has great self-confidence, but not that he’s cocky, he believes in himself to the fullest.
“It’s hard for me to find any comparison. I would say Martina Sablikova [former Czech speed skater] for example. It’s an internal mindset, where you don’t doubt yourself and have a healthy belief in your abilities. How many times can Tonda do something in a match that would make his job much easier, but he prefers to choose a riskier solution because he wants to solve the situation in a footballing way at all costs. Moreover, it is also reflected in other things.”
Comparisons with fellow countryman Petr Cech have also been made, with the former Chelsea and Arsenal considered one of the Premier League greats. And Horacek revealed that Kinsky regularly faced a similar scenario with Slavia that Cech had on a regular basis in England’s top flight.
“He has an excellent defence in front of him in Slavia, that has to be left alone, but at the same time it is difficult for him in that he often goes 40 minutes without making a save and then has to quickly resolve a difficult situation,” he revealed. “This is exactly what Petr Cech used to do at Chelsea. He had a strong defence in front of him, led by John Terry, but then he had to show off with one or two saves.
“Tonda is strong in this. He can read the opponent and resolve it. I also admit that I am waiting for a match when he will be under more pressure to see how he reacts.”
Kinsky also was also praised for his work with his feet, soemthing Forster has struggled with throughout his lengthy career.
“What I like about him is that his style of play prevents him from coming under pressure,” said Horacek. “He plays in a way that makes sense and prevents the opponent from immediately going on a break. This makes his job easier for him, but above all it helps the whole team.
“Moreover, he doesn’t care which foot he kicks the ball with. I asked him in training which he prefers, but he said he doesn’t care. In short, he kicks with both the same way.”
He added: “He has a problem with one thing. Sometimes he doesn’t get into a match, when he has a 30-minute dead end, where he doesn’t get the ball at all. It bothers him because he loves to play, to pass. He needs it. And when the ball gets to him, he sometimes has a tendency to want to be seen and to invent unnecessarily complicated things.
“I can imagine that against Ajax, for example, the coaches had to restrain him from going crazy with some risky pass, because it could smell like trouble.”