Reports linking Tottenham Hotspur with a January swoop for two Genoa stars may raise more questions than answers.
After all, can two players currently plying their trade in the second-tier of Italian football really be expected to make a genuine impact at a team who’s early-season momentum has been checked following a run of just two wins in seven games?
But, given Fabio Paratici’s previous success when it comes to signing players from Italian soil, Spurs’ former Juventus talent-spotter surely deserves the benefit of the doubt.
After all, it was Dejan Kulusevski and Rodrigo Bentancur who dragged an uninspired Spurs team over the line during last weekend’s topsy-turvy 4-3 victory over Leeds United. And not for the first time either.
Cristian Romero, meanwhile, is perhaps the only member of an unconvincing Tottenham backline who would stand a chance of securing a starting berth at Conte’s title-winning Inter Milan or Chelsea sides. The best of a rather average lot.
Another Italian raid for Tottenham Hotspur?
Per SerieBNews, Paratici hopes to bring Morten Frendrup and Radu Dragusin to North London in the New Year. The former, a versatile Denmark U21 international, would provide depth and youthful exuberance in midfield and out wide.
Dragusin, meanwhile, is a name that may be familiar to Tottenham supporters. At least, those with a keen eye on the transfer market and longer memories than most. The 20-year-old Romanian rejected a move to England in 2021, preferring to fight for his place at Juventus.
He may wish he’d never bothered. Dragusin didn’t make a single appearance under Max Allegri last season. He was then farmed out to Genoa in a £5 million loan-to-buy deal in July. When the great hope of Romanian football rebuffed the advances of Spurs, Newcastle United, RB Leipzig and co, he wouldn’t have envisaged being flogged to a Serie B outfit just 12 months down the line. Albeit one, in Genoa, expecting to bounce back at the first time of asking.
“He has a great desire to stay here,” Dragusin’s agent told TuttoJuve at the time. “And will work hard to become the starter (at Juventus) in the future.”
“I can confirm that we have been contacted by several European clubs. The player was wanted by Crystal Palace, Newcastle, Leipzig, and Wolfsburg. Also Tottenham. We presented the offers to the boy, who had no doubts and wanted to stay at Juventus.”
Genoa, if presented with the opportunity to make an immediate profit on a player given his first-team debut by Andrea Pirlo, could trigger the £5 million option-to-buy clause in his contract before selling him on to Tottenham.
Paratici knows Dragusin well from their time together in Turin.
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