Former Tottenham Hotspur forward Ilie Dumitrescu believes Radu Dragusin has made the ‘perfect’ decision by rejecting a move to Bayern Munich.
Tottenham announced their first signing of the January transfer window on Tuesday evening with Timo Werner arriving from RB Leipzig.
Spurs are now close to following that up with another signing as Genoa defender Radu Dragusin nears a move to North London.
Despite a hijack attempt from Bayern Munich, HITC Football understands that Dragusin is heading to London for a medical with Tottenham today.
The Romanian will arrive as competition for Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven and could be in the squad to face Manchester United this weekend.
Ilie Dumitrescu reacts to Radu Dragusin joining Tottenham Hotspur
The deal will be worth around €30million (£26million), marking a huge transfer for Romanian football.
Dragusin is now set to become the fourth Romanian to turn out for Tottenham, following in the footsteps of Gheorghe Popescu, Ilie Dumitrescu and Vlad Chiriches.
Now a pundit in Romania, Dumitrescu has now shared his view on Dragusin’s transfer whilst speaking to Digisport.
Dumitrescu believes that Dragusin picking Tottenham over Bayern is the ‘perfect choice’, even if he admits that he may be a little biased given his own history at Spurs.
Dragusin can make a real impact in the heart of Tottenham’s back line according to Dumitrescu and believes that he is truly fearless as he heads for an ‘extraordinary’ Premier League transfer.
“It is an extraordinary transfer for him and for Romania. He is the fourth Romanian to arrive there and I have great confidence that he made the perfect choice,” said Dumitrescu. “An important asset for him is that he transferred at the optimal time to Juventus, at the age of 16, as it were, and he grew up in a society and with players who have a culture of winners. There were titles won, Champions League finals, and that counts.”
“He played very well in Serie B, in Serie A, against good strikers and performed flawlessly. I was reading a stat about defenders from which I learned that he has only been dribbled once this season, just after Van Dijk. That says it all about him!”
“Maybe I’m a bit biased, but he chose Tottenham and not Bayern very well. There are some problems in the central area here and he can handle it well. He’s strong, makes a good tackle game and has no fear. He has also proved to be a staple in the national team, but all this praise for what he has done so far would not have existed if he was not a good footballer. The team also helps you, but first of all you have to help yourself,” he added.
Dumitrescu was a sensation for Steaua Bucharest in his playing days and joined Tottenham in 1994, hoping to become a Premier League star too.
That didn’t really happen though as Dumitrescu managed just 18 league appearances and four goals for Spurs.
A loan move to Sevilla didn’t help save his Tottenham career and he ended up being flogged to West Ham United in 1996, where he continued to struggle.
Dragusin will hope for much better fortunes at Tottenham than Dumitrescu experienced and Spurs will be confident that he can become the best of the Romanian contingent to pull on a Tottenham shirt.
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