Destiny Udogie performing spectacularly ahead of his move to Tottenham
Destiny Udogie, a prospect for Tottenham Hotspur, shone for Udinese in a 3-1 win against AC Milan on Saturday night. Spurs’ woes continued on Saturday as they blew a 3-1 lead and ended up drawing 3-3 with Southampton.
An apparent resurgence of anger in Antonio Conte has made his departure this summer all but certain. It’s possible that wing-back Udogie may join Spurs before next season, preventing Conte from working with him.
With Conte gone, Tottenham may abandon their wing-back formation, but Udogie is arguing convincingly in favour of keeping it.
This past Saturday, Udogie started for Udinese as a left-wing back as they faced off against AC Milan, the defending Serie A champions. Udinese had a fantastic game tonight, taking the lead on a goal by Roberto Pereyra before Zlatan Ibrahimovic tied it.
Beto put Udinese back in the lead, and Kingsley Ehizibue scored off an assist from Udogie to ice the victory. Udogie received a rating of 7 out of 10 from Tuttomercatoweb for his performance versus Milan.
During his rushes forward, Udogie reportedly left the Milan defence in a state of “complete uncertainty,” according to TMW, who also praised his “top-notch” performance.
It’s fair to say that Spurs’ recruiting strategy has drawn some criticism, and that criticism is probably warranted. And yet, it seems like Tottenham has beaten the competition to the punch and signed a promising young player in Udogie.
Last summer, Spurs and Udogie agreed on a contract for £15 million, increasing to £18 million, with the player spending the next season on loan at Udinese.
This summer, Udogie will join Tottenham, but if Spurs had waited, many other teams would have been interested in the 20-year-old forward as well.
In this situation, Tottenham is really ahead of the curve in the transfer market, however, whether or not Conte actually coach Udogie is still up in the air.