If the Belgian football media is anything to go by, Tottenham Hotspur have already identified the player they want to bring in to “replace” Harry Kane — Gent’s Nigerian striker Gift Orban. According to Sacha Tavolieri, Spurs are still in active negotiations with Orban’s representatives, with a written transfer proposal coming soon.
Infos #KAAGent :
⚪️ Talks ongoing for Gift #Orban to Tottenham Hotspurs. Still no official written offer sent today by #Spurs but I’ve been told, it’s processing.
⏳ Wait&See. #mercato— Sacha Tavolieri (@sachatavolieri) August 14, 2023
So I think the way this is going to work is that Spurs are negotiating informally with both Gent and with Orban’s people to hammer out a verbal agreement on the transfer fee structure and personal terms, so that everything goes through when they DO submit a formal bid. Contrast that to Bayern Munich’s public pursuit of Harry Kane which had three public bids submitted and rejected before having one accepted last week. I like this system better.
Orban, as we’ve mentioned, would be a high risk but extremely high upside signing. He’d likely take some time to adjust to the Premier League and I don’t think anyone should expect him to immediately slot in and start banging in goals. But his ceiling is astoundingly high and he could turn out to be a huge player for Spurs despite this being only his second year of senior football.
Tavolieri has been at the forefront of the Orban news, and he’s generally considered very reliable for Belgian football. That doesn’t mean this is going to happen, but this tweet is a pretty darned good sign. Let’s hope he ends up being God’s Gift to humankind.
