Destiny Udogie: Spurs’ new Gareth Bale?

Fabio Paratici has had quite a lot of success within the switch market since arriving at Tottenham.

The Italian has thrived in his new function and alongside Antonio Conte, Daniel Levy has shaped a brilliant crew that appears like threatening the elite of the Premier League.

Whereas it may be a step too far to recommend Spurs might problem for the title this time period, they do appear to be one of the probably groups to threaten Manchester Metropolis in 2022/23, one thing that has been caused by Paratici and Conte.

The Italian duo have carved out a extra bullish fashion in current months with Harry Kane spearheading a crew that presently look nailed on for a top-four place.

Tottenham maybe haven’t been at their finest this season but it surely feels solely a matter of time earlier than they really kick into gear.

Final season they snatched Champions League soccer away from their arch-rivals, Arsenal, largely due to Paratici’s first few additions in Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski. The latter, particularly, has been a breath of contemporary air with six targets and 11 assists in 29 outings for the Lilywhites.

His mortgage transfer is set to develop into a everlasting deal within the close to future, a call that may lock down the right-hand aspect of Tottenham’s crew for a lot of a 12 months. But, there’s a participant who Paratici has dropped at north London that has somewhat gone beneath the radar.

The participant in query is Future Udogie, somebody who might lock down the left-hand aspect of the Spurs aspect.

The gifted 19-year-old joined in the summertime for an preliminary charge of £15m, doubtlessly rising to £20m, earlier than he was loaned again to Udinese in Serie A.

He has been a rampant pressure in Italy, producing performances that bear similarities to a sure Gareth Bale.

Certainly, that’s as a result of Udogie has been enjoying at left wing-back, demonstrating qualities {that a} younger and rampant Bale as soon as did at Tottenham.

The Welshman initially broke by way of at left-back earlier than changing into an electrifying ahead and one of the costly footballers ever.

Taking part in as a full-back in 2009/10, the flying Wales worldwide solely scored three occasions however registered an eye catching 11 assists earlier than really exploding the next marketing campaign, scoring 11 occasions and supplying ten assists in a extra offensive place on the left flank.

It’s a profession development that somewhat mirrors that of the younger Udogie, with the Italian discovering the online on five events final season whereas racking up three assists from a mix of left-back and left midfield.

In his eight appearances so far in 2022/23, he has been “on fire” within the phrases of expertise scout Jacek Kulig, with {the teenager} enjoying barely additional ahead and scoring twice thus far. These numbers aren’t jaw-dropping by any stretch of the creativeness however his potential to affect play from the left-hand aspect is scarily just like Bale.

That may be rubberstamped courtesy of some eye-catching statistics, with the Spurs loanee rating within the best 7% of gamers in his place throughout Europe’s prime 5 leagues for photographs heading in the right direction per 90 minutes.

Udogie additionally ranks within the top 14% for goal-creating actions during the last three hundred and sixty five days, whereas additionally rating in one of the best 11% for touches within the attacking penalty space. He’s additionally in one of the best 9% of gamers for carries into the opposition’s 18-yard field and to wrap issues up, sits within the prime 17% for dribbles tried.

These numbers are critically spectacular and solely go for example the Bale-like qualities that the teenager possesses.

Simply whether or not he’ll go on to develop into an £85m participant stays to be seen however the “tenacious” expertise – as dubbed by Kulig – definitely has the world at his ft.