Banned Fabio Paritici hailed amid delight at Tottenham transfer development on Radu Dragusin over Jean-Clair Todibo
We’re delighted to welcome former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson as our exclusive columnist as each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium…
Paul Robinson would “love to see” Radu Dragusin join the Tottenham squad and believes he is a much better option than Jean-Clair Todibo.
Fabrizio Romano had reported Spurs entering talks with Nice for the latter on 20 December amid rival interest from Manchester United, with Chelsea also said to be looking at the former Barcelona man [RMC Sport, 7 January].
But the club have since pushed on in a big way for Genoa’s Dragusin, with Romano reporting on 9 January they remain confident of landing the Romanian despite competition from Bayern Munich. The Italian transfer expert reported there’s been a “twist” in the transfer saga with Bayern bidding to beat Spurs to the defender’s signature.
Former Tottenham keeper Robinson is fully behind the pursuit of the 21-year-old and feels he fits the exact same profile as other recent successful signings such as Dejan Kulusevski, Rodrigo Bentancur, Guglielmo Vicario and Micky van de Ven.
He credits banned former managing director Fabio Paritici’s influence for the club targeting that profile of player, and with Ange Postecoglou having had to manage without his starting centre-back pairing of Van de Ven and Cristian Romero so often already, he thinks Dragusin is the ideal solution.
“Dragusin’s a better player for me, I’d love to see him in the Spurs squad,” he exclusively told Tottenham News.
“You look at the recruitment team that they’ve got, we know that Paratici’s got his worldwide football ban, but Daniel Levy’s got his ear so I think he’s quite key to the recruitment at Tottenham.
“You look at what they’ve done in the past, Kulusevski, Bentancur, Van de Ven, Vicario, those type of players that [Paratici’s] got his fingerprints all over.
“This Dragusin deal is exactly the same. He’s at Genoa, he’s been on loan there from Juventus, played at Juventus, he’s a fantastic centre-half, a ball-playing centre-half, exactly what Ange would want.
“He looks like the type of player who would fit into Ange’s system. Romero and Van de Ven have been excellent this season, for the first 10 games they were a huge part of Spurs’ success.
“But Van de Ven unfortunately got injured, Romero’s got injured, then he gets suspended which we all know is going to happen at some point. It’s not an if, it’s a when.
“So his first-choice pairing would be Ven de Ven and Romero, but as we’ve seen this season they’re not always at your disposal, we’ve had four full-backs playing across the back four.
“Dragusin comes in and gives you another option, and I think he’s a top, top class defender.
“He would be the same type of signing as Van de Ven and Kulusevsky that Paratici’s got his fingerprints all over and he’d be an excellent addition in January.”
Spurs completed the loan signing of Timo Werner on Tuesday (9 January) to kick off their January recruitment drive.
In other Tottenham news, one former Premier League player mocked a struggling Spurs man who he claims is getting by on nationality alone.