Tottenham Hotspur have been underperforming badly this season under Thomas Frank and are still buried in the bottom half of the Premier League, but, unlike last year, there is no hope of a prestigious trophy turning the tide of the narrative of a dismal season.
The one bright thing about Spurs is that they have a roster filled with great young talents, and while some of those talents - like Micky van de Ven and Mathys Tel - are now at risk of leaving, there is an exceptional nucleus of young stars worth building around. And they added a couple of more gems this past summer transfer window in Mohammed Kudus and Xavi Simons.
Going forward, Spurs need to pick up a few more and make sure they do not lose any of their current crop. Already, Tottenham are expecting to bring in Souza from the Brazilian Serie A, as the gem left back from Santos is ready to step in and compete with Destiny Udogie, supplanting Djed Spence, who was an awful ersatz for the Italian international as a completely unnatural left back.
Tottenham brought in Souza for a reason
But as Tottenham get ready to embrace Souza as Udogie's backup, Spurs also have to start thinking about the incumbent starter. Because one of the biggest reasons for bringing in Souza to compete at left back and eventually develop is that a harsh reality is beginning to settle in with Udogie.
Although Udogie is talented and one of European football's better left backs when healthy, he is indeed not currently healthy. And, in fact, since joining Fabio Paratici and Antonio Conte in the Premier League after flashing potential at Udinese, Udogie has been pretty rarely healthy for Spurs.
This season, Udogie has started just six Premier League games with four additioanl appearances off the bench. A total of six starts for a sure fire starter at this point in the season in mid January is quite a low return and really underscores how unreliable all the injuries have made him.
Still only 23 years of age, Udogie is a man with all the talent and potential in the world to be a world class left back, but Spurs have to wonder if he will ever realize it or if he will every be healthy enough to be someone Spurs can rely on. That makes the Souza signing more importnat than maybe some fans realize, because Spurs themselves have learned that they can no longer 100 percent count on Udogie to fulfill his destiny.