Fabrizio Romano: Tottenham deal in place for new Destiny Udogie contract, pay rise agreed
Destiny Udogie’s Monday morning couldn’t have gone much better based on news emerging out of Tottenham less than 24 hours after their 4-1 win over Newcastle.
Spurs returned to winning ways by hammering the Magpies with Udogie, 21, getting on the scoresheet for the first time in English football.
It wasn’t just a good goalscoring display from the Spurs left-back, however.
According to Sofascore, the Italian full-back also won three of his four ground duels, made two clearances, won two tackles, completed one interception and found a teammate with 41 of his 45 (91%) passes. Out of those passes, two of them were key passes while his only shot on target generated an xG of 0.9 and it also hit the back of the net.
It was a tremendous, all-round display by the full-back, who was used in a very left-field manner by Ange Postecoglou.
He almost played as a central midfielder with his heatmap showing just how much of the ball he touched inside on the left-hand side of the pitch, rather than just sticking out wide.
Pedro Porro was played similarly on the other side of the pitch and that allowed Spurs to get bodies tucked in behind the front four of Richarlison, Son Heung-min, Dejan Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson.
As well as squeezing inside to make Tottenham really hard to play against, Udogie also bombed forward down the flank to offer support to Son on the left.
But it’s no surprise to see Udogie performing well as a full-back, a defender, a winger or a central midfield all in one game.
He has been in great form for most of the season.
Granted, he and a few of his teammates went off the boil through November and the start of December but either side of that Spurs-wide rut, the Italian has been sensational.
That’s why Fabrizio Romano’s update on Monday morning (11 December) is absolutely wonderful news for Tottenham fans.
According to the Italian transfer expert, a new contract is in place for Udogie.
It is understood that the former Udinese full-back has agreed terms on a pay rise with Romano saying that his “club sources” can confirm the new contract is “all done”.
As if it wasn’t good enough for Spurs fans to wake up on a Monday morning with that winning feeling back in their bones, they’re also now going to see this superb update from Romano that will make the week that bit sweeter.
On Friday night (15 December), Spurs play struggling Nottingham Forest.
It’s time to really gain up some momentum again, especially with Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal now starting to drop points in the title race and the race for a top-four finish.
In other Tottenham news, Ange Postecoglou was let down by one player in the win over Newcastle.