DONE DEAL: Oliver Skipp finalizes transfer to Leicester City

Farewell, sweet prince. Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City have finalized the sale of Spurs academy graduate and central midfielder Oliver Skipp. According to David Ornstein in The Athletic, the fee was £20m, plus 5m in performance based add-ons, for a potential total of £25m

There isn’t much I can say that Matty didn’t already say when the news first broke of an agreement between Spurs and Leicester. I think we all wanted Skippy to break into the first team and become the next Harry Kane — a Champions League-caliber homegrown and club-trained player, at the club since he was eight, who would end up a one-club man like Ledley King. It’s a nice fairy tale story, but there’s a reason fairy tales are shelved in the fiction section.

The truth is, as nice a guy as Skipp is (and I quite like him) he simply was not at the level Ange Postecoglou needed for his team. Football is a cruel business, and it means that a young player Jose Mourinho called “a future Tottenham club captain” will now join, and likely partner with, another former Spurs homegrown midfielder in Harry Winks at Leicester. And boy oh boy am I ever curious to see how THAT’S going to work out!

£20m+ for Skipp makes him one of the most valuable Spurs academy graduates sales in club history, second in absolute financial terms behind Harry Kane’s transfer to Bayern last summer. He’s one of the best Spurs players to come out of the academy in the Premier League era. That makes Oliver Skipp an exceptional outcome for Tottenham’s academy, even if he ultimately didn’t stick in Spurs’ first team.

Tottenham will have some tough choices to make with regards to their Europa League squad construction, but that was true irrespective of what happens to Oliver Skipp. In the meantime, I can say a heartfelt thank you to Oliver for his many, many years of service to the club. You earned it, buddy.

Now, I hope he has a relegation break clause in his new contract…

Update: According to Alasdair Gold, Spurs have ALSO managed to get a sell-on clause (percentage undisclosed) into the deal. Amazing! Levy’s still got it, y’all.