The situation regarding Luka Vuskovic’s future is heating up. Reports came out yesterday from Fabrizio Romano and others that Brighton & Hove Albion have submitted a third bid for Tottenham’s 19-year-old Croatian central defender Luka Vuskovic in the amount of £45m, a figure that includes performance-based escalators. This is well under Tottenham’s valuation of the player, which is said to be £60m or more.
There’s a spurious and unsourced article in the Standard that suggests that Vuskovic is prepared to submit a transfer request to force a move this summer, but for now I wouldn’t put too much stock in that due to the weasel-word language in that report. It has not been reported anywhere else that I can see,
I should start by reminding readers that Vuskovic is represented by super-agent Pini Zahavi, who is not at all above putting out rumors that are intended to get Spurs fans angry and upset at Vuskovic and hence attempt to drive a wedge that could result in a lucrative sale for his client. Fans should also not be upset for a player advocating for himself to get the best possible outcome for his career. After a very good loan in Germany, Vuskovic wants to play regular first team football next season at a high level, something he’s not likely to get at Tottenham next season. He should demand that! He has earned at minimum another high profile loan.
That said — he is under contract until 2030 and hence does not have very much leverage to force his way out. That, I presume, is what is behind these aggressive and seemingly divisive news stories — they’re almost certainly orchestrated by Zahavi to make fans and others angry and generate hot takes that are sympathetic to the player.
For the record, here’s what Vuskovic has said about the situation. It doesn’t sound that bad!
“For now I’m focused only on the World Cup. My goal next season is to play for a club that wants me and where I will play. We’ll see what happens in the coming days and weeks.”
Look, let’s be frank here. Spurs are not going to sell him this month — if they do it’ll be in July and the new fiscal year for accounting purposes. But I also don’t think Spurs need to sell him at all — they hold almost all of the cards regarding his future, have already suggested that the plan is for Luka to return after the World Cup and have talks with Roberto De Zerbi, and that the most likely scenario is another loan somewhere next season, rather than him sitting at the end of a stacked central defense bench.
Let’s also not forget that just a year ago, Vuskovic himself admitted that he’s not ready for Premier League football at Spurs, suggesting that he’d be well behind Cuti Romero and Micky van de Ven and saying he needs more time to develop. I don’t see that, even after one good year in Germany, his situation has changed that much, though his agents are likely to disagree on behalf of their client.
And there’s precedent for the keep-and-loan plan too — look what Arsenal did with William Saliba, who was sent off on three loans at hear the same age as Luka before being fully integrated into Arsenal’s back line. He’s still just 25. Luka is 19.
These rumors are designed to get fans upset at Vuskovic so that they’re more amenable to the club selling him. And maybe that’ll happen. But generational young central defenders don’t exactly grow on trees, and if Vuskovic wanted to be flipped quickly by Spurs he shouldn’t have signed a six year contract. That’s on him. Spurs are perfectly within their rights to tell him “You’re going on loan next season and you’re going to like it” and revisit the situation next summer. He’s 19. He hasn’t impressed (or, to be fair, unimpressed) at the World Cup after one match with Croatia. He’s got some growing and developing yet to do, and letting a superagent take Spurs to the cleaners would be about the dumbest thing the club could possibly do, unless they get a bid that meets or exceeds their valuation of the player. (That said, nobody here trusts Spurs’ leadership right now so bets are absolutely not yet off.)
My advice — calma, calma, calma. This is unlikely to be resolved until after the World Cup, and any future schputt about this deal is coming from one side. Be steadfast, and patient.