Tottenham have just announced their record sale for a player to have never turned out a single competitive game for them, but the £50million transfer must not become a summer theme.
Spurs confirmed on Tuesday morning that 19-year-old Luka Vuskovic would be heading to Brighton in a £46million deal, with another £4million to be got in easily achievable add-ons. football.london understands Tottenham will also hold a 20 per cent sell-on clause on any profit the Seagulls make if they sell the teenager in the coming years and have matching rights on any bid, should they want to bring the defender back to north London.
Vuskovic made just three pre-season friendly appearances for the club, playing against Reading, Luton and Newcastle last year. He grabbed a goal and assist against Reading to spark excitement that never led to anything at Tottenham. He was on the bench for the UEFA Super Cup defeat to PSG and the first two Premier League games of the season but never looked like coming on.
Less than 12 months on and the Croatian has become the fourth biggest sale in the club's history and third in the past 10 years behind Harry Kane and Kyle Walker.
Ultimately Vuskovic wanted to play regular football week in, week out and Roberto De Zerbi could not guarantee that after signing two experienced centre-backs this summer to add to a packed department of the squad.
The youngster has developed in huge strides over the past 12 months as evidenced by him making the Bundesliga Team of the Year with struggling Hamburg and making Croatia's World Cup squad. Their opening game against England brought his only minutes in the tournament.
The only remaining doubts at Spurs were over his pace, acceleration and the decision-making ability that comes with age. Last summer Vuskovic knew he was not ready for Tottenham and the Premier League but a year on and the situation has changed with his added club and international experience.
Another loan was mooted but it would have been the fourth such move for the young Croatian since Spurs agreed his signing way back in 2023. He and his representatives were done with the nomadic life and the feeling was that there was no true home for him at Tottenham.
So the north London club set a price and transfer package for him and Brighton met it, meaning that in essence the Lilywhites have swapped Vuskovic for Jan Paul van Hecke.
Right now, Vuskovic would be unlikely to leap at those Spurs matching rights, as his desire to leave and even 'liking' Instagram posts about Brighton trying to sign him last month suggest. As of writing this, he has posted only about his new club on social media and is yet to bid a public farewell to a club who he likely thought treated him more like an investment than a player for them.
Who knows what the future holds but with the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich keeping an eye on him right now, if he does succeed in the Premier League on the south coast then the game's giants will start to follow up on their interest and Spurs will remain an unlikely destination.
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Ultimately, the coming years will show whether Spurs or Brighton got the better deal of the Vuskovic/Van Hecke trade. What Vuskovic might have been like in a Tottenham shirt must be consigned to the 'who knows' drawer that also contains Ange Postecoglou's third season at the club and other crossroads moments over the years.
Tottenham got the money for Vuskovic that will improve their cash position and ensure they can continue the rebuild of De Zerbi's squad that has so far cost £237million and seen six new players arrive before a ball has even been kicked.
It's an exciting time for Spurs supporters as the club builds for the now rather their previous stance under former chairman Daniel Levy of mainly looking to a future that ultimately never came.
The key though is that both can be achieved hand-in-hand with each other. One does not have to be dispensed to serve the other and this summer will showcase whether Tottenham will lurch from one extreme to the other.
Mateus Fernandes of course has only just turned 22 so ticks both boxes but Spurs must also remain wary of their homegrown problems which will only temporarily be placed to one side if they expect to be out of European competition for just the one season.
UEFA's rules are very different to the Premier League's and those problems with a lack of club-trained players will return to haunt them the moment they qualify for continental football, bringing the inability to register some of the large number of foreign stars at the club.
In isolation, Vuskovic's sale can be explained as simply bad timing for all involved with the turmoil at Spurs in the past 12 months and the club got the best possible deal they could for a youngster yet to even step foot on to a Premier League pitch.
However, it must not become a trend with the future thrown out to suit the present. As mentioned, they can co-exist.
Lucas Bergvall asked to leave the club this summer after dwindling game time last season and the £185million arrival of both Fernandes and Sandro Tonali in the midfield only reinforcing the fear of another such campaign. Spurs are currently saying that the 20-year-old, who they signed ahead of Barcelona, is not for sale but what if someone like Nottingham Forest meets their valuation as Brighton did for Vuskovic?
Archie Gray, also 20, cost Tottenham £40million just two years ago but how much game time will he get this season without the extra fixtures European football brings? His versatility gives him more of a chance than Bergvall but clubs like Newcastle are sniffing around the Leeds academy product.
Bergvall and Gray were the respective Spurs players of the season in the past two campaigns. Some might point to Tottenham finishing 17th in both seasons and ask whether they can truly be that good. However, that they stood head and shoulders above many of their experienced team-mates amid the injury carnage and upheaval at the club suggests they are.
The big clubs ease their top young talents into life in the Premier League and surround them with quality to help them through games. Spurs had no choice but to hurl Bergvall and Gray into the fray as key players, the latter in various positions like centre-back where he had never played previously. That they came through it as the best of the bunch says plenty about them.
It's not just those brought into the club though like Vuskovic, Bergvall and Gray, who all would have/will become club trained. It's also the pathway from the academy to the first team that currently looks blocked.
football.london reported on Monday that Sporting, Wolves and Southampton have all had approaches to sign Will Lankshear from Tottenham turned down in recent days after the 21-year-old striker netted 12 goals on loan in the Championship at relegated Oxford last season.
He is developing rapidly but Spurs are likely to sign a new forward this summer. Unless Lankshear wows De Zerbi in pre-season in the coming weeks, there is the very real possibility that again the club may accept a bid for him if someone matches their valuation. Those three clubs mentioned are already believed to have proposed eight-figure deals.
Mikey Moore had a big season at Rangers, winning the Scottish Premiership Young Player of the Year, and the 18-year-old is another that the Spurs boss will look at this summer. The teenager is not believed to be for sale, but another loan move could beckon with the club looking at further additions to the wings to again block his path.
At the same age, Mason Melia is now a Republic of Ireland international, but whether the forward remains at the club or heads out on loan could depend on what happens with Lankshear.
There are also 17-year-olds Luca Williams-Barnett and Jun'ai Byfield, who both impressed in their senior debuts last season, but chances will be few and far between in this slimmer season ahead unless the injuries continue to plague the club.
So while Tottenham's summer has been thrilling so far, the rebuild can be carried out alongside the young stars of the future rather than instead of them. In the words of Helen Lovejoy in The Simpsons - "Won't somebody please think of the children."