Tottenham Hotspur are going to be thin on defense, at least in the short term. Today, hours after first announcing that the clubs were in negotiations, Fabrizio Romano tweeted that Tottenham and Galatasaray have reached an agreement to send Davinson Sanchez to the Turkish club on a permanent transfer. The deal is expected to be €10-15m, including add-ons.
Davinson Sánchez to Galatasaray, here we go! Agreement reached with Spurs on fee between €10/15m with add-ons included #Galatasaray
Understand Sánchez will sign until June 2027.
Understand medical will be next 24h in Colombia.
Sánchez + Ndombele, almost done. pic.twitter.com/cvcUpDgsp0
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 4, 2023
This is surprising, quite honestly. Sanchez had been regularly 3rd choice at central defense this season for Spurs, and his departure means that Spurs’ CBs are now Cuti Romero, Micky van de Ven, Ben Davies, (presumably) Eric Dier, and 18-year old Ashley Phillips. Considering Dier has yet to feature this season, it means Phillips is effectively Romero’s backup, with Dier backing up both Van de Ven and Destiny Udogie.
Spurs are now desperately thin in defense, but with the club already out of the League Cup and not in Europe, there are fewer matches to play, which means so long as Spurs stay healthy they may just be fine until they get to January’s window where I presume they’ll evaluate their options. There are reports that Ange Postecoglou is very impressed with Phillips and could be prepared to give him a chance; he was on the bench this past weekend at Burnley despite playing with the U21s so far this season.
I’ve said it before — this is a project and a rebuilding year, and it seems Big Ange is leaning into that. We’ll see if it pays off.
