Could Oliver Skipp benefit from Tottenham Hotspur’s failure to sign Wilmar Barrios?
Tottenham Hotspur are missing out on more players than they are signing this summer.
Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino, yet to bring in anyone so far, saw Malcom join Roma on Monday, while Wilmar Barrios looks like he is staying at Boca Juniors for now.
The Colombia international, who impressed during the World Cup in Russia, looked likely to join Tottenham, but Boca president Daniel Angelici revealed to Ole that the 24-year-old has signed a new contract with the South American giants.
But although that one looks dead in the water for now, there is one Lilywhites player who might be secretly pleased: Oliver Skipp.
The 17-year-old, named by The Guardian as Tottenham’s next big talent in 2017, is also a defensive midfielder and the arrival of Barrios would have made it nigh-on impossible for him to break through into the senior set-up over the coming years.
Skipp would have been behind Barrios, Victor Wanyama and Eric Dier in the pecking order, but the teenager, who was included in Pochettino’s squad for the pre-season tour of the United States, now has the added incentive of knowing that impressing in America could yield big rewards for him.
Of course, he isn’t going to be starting games for Pochettino’s side next season, no matter what he does on tour, but Skipp has already breached the Under-23 set-up and seems to be progressing rapidly. This might be the first big break of his burgeoning career.
He isn’t that close to the first-team squad, but he’d have been a lot further away had Barrios turned up in North London this summer.
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