What Arnaud Danjuma can bring to Tottenham: swagger, skill and finesse

Perhaps Arnaut Danjuma was expecting a free weekend at the end of January.

After he got out FA cupAnd everton Not playing this weekend and given how close he is to signing for the Merseyside club, Danjuma could have used the time to start settling in on Merseyside.

Rather, after Late dramatic tackle from Tottenham Hotspur (some might say abduction), he will leave for Deepdale, home of Preston North End, for the FA Cup Fourth Round clash with his new club.

His move to Tottenham ended a long and drawn-out process with several clubs vying for his signature. This is not surprising given his level Villarreal Last season and the fact that he was available on loan. Danjuma and/or his representatives have met with many clubs including in Italy, France and the Netherlands.

Danjuma was the top choice for Everton and, for a while, the feeling was mutual, with the 25-year-old eager to work with now-former boss Frank Lampard and excited about the challenge of trying to shove Everton to safety, the same way. Richardson did last season.

So low was the deal with Everton that Danjuma completed a medical and was at the club’s training ground on the same day the team lost to West Ham. He was given Everton’s training equipment, met dignitaries from the club and it looked as though the move was in progress.

Danjuma, which also attracted interest from Crystal Palace His former club Bournemouth still have papers to sign and some media duties to be done and that was expected to take place on Monday. His representatives traveled to Liverpool and waited to be fetched from the train station that day, Danjuma due north from London. However, no longer.

Instead, Tottenham made their interest clear and the player, fearful of sacking Lampard on Monday, changed his mind.

Despite this, Managing Director of Football Fabio Paratici is still leading Tottenham’s transfer work ban him for 30 months from the Italian match, He and performance manager Gretar Stenson – formerly of Everton – have both worked on the go.

Tottenham acted quickly to seal a deal with Villarreal, despite the player getting more lucrative offers from elsewhere, and Danjuma underwent treatment later that day, completed the paperwork on Wednesday morning and was announced as a Tottenham player in the afternoon, on loan with Option to buy.

“There was no thinking”@tweetFirst interview as a Tottenham player pic.twitter.com/bWGnmqKm0V

– Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) January 25, 2023

In particular, Everton weren’t terribly surprised their move fell through – they had an idea things weren’t going quite so smoothly – even if there was some anger at Goodison Park. It is possible that the club’s turmoil and, at the time, uncertainty over Lampard’s future may have fueled indecisiveness on Danjuma’s part. He had pressed the club for an answer on whether Lampard would be sacked and left him confident he would have time to work with him for at least a few games. But again, that never materialized.

Had he joined Everton, it would have been his first training session without a manager, with Paul Tait and Leighton Baines attending the sessions. Far from ideal.

Enter Tottenham, who have been looking to add to their forward line this window. Attacking was a priority position alongside the right-back, and in a day or two, both could be full, with Pedro Porro poised to move from Sporting Lisbon.

If Spurs get a Danjuma that fights their way through the tournament then Champions League In 2021 and 2022, this move will represent an excellent business.

Former NEC Nijmegen technical director Remco Oversier said of Danjuma’s explosive ability when he made his breakthrough at the club in 2016, after PSV had previously given himself away to PSV without making a senior appearance. “His dribbling is exceptional. This boy has a lot of potential.”

It took some time for this potential to be realized. Indeed, Danjuma had to go down to start climbing again, with a prolific season at championship level with Bournemouth serving as a catalyst.

Those early signs of brilliance at NEC meant big clubs across Europe, incl Manchester cityHowever, he started to pay attention, but Club Bruges was to be Danjuma’s choice. This was a player who wanted regular football and a move to Belgium allowed for that. In fact, he has scored five goals and set up another 10 in his first 12 matches of 2017.

Danjuma has been an inspiration at the start of the 2017-18 season, contributing 10 assists and five goals in his first 12 games, mostly playing on the left wing in a 3-5-2 game but with a license to attack as they please (Club Brugge right) The wing-back will sit to give the system some balance.)

“He is a player who can achieve something,” says his assistant manager at Club Brugge, Edward Steele, previously said the athlete. “You weren’t always sure when and how, but he had that ability to win matches, which I felt very quickly in training.”

It was clear that Danjuma was destined to a higher level, especially after he did so against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League.

👏 Thrilling hit! 🎯

^ Arnaud Danjuma Groenefeld 👌#UCL pic.twitter.com/RzMuAJGpLW

Champions League October 9, 2018

Around this time he also broke in Netherlands team, scoring in his second appearance against Belgium. Transfer to AC Milan He was mooted for the next transfer window, in January 2019, but Club Brugge were reluctant to sell given they were in a title fight and still in the process. European League.

What factors, then, have tempered Danjuma’s career rise to this point? Well, injuries for one: In the past five years, Danjuma has missed over a year of football through a variety of issues. In fact, he missed a large part of his only season at Club Brugge due to an ankle problem and ended that campaign on the bench.

There were also question marks over a character who was said to tread too closely on the line between arrogance and overconfidence, and this sometimes led to disagreements with staff. Those who have worked with Danjuma describe him as amiable, polite and amiable, but perhaps not an example of a team player, certainly in those early years. There were also issues in defence, something he believes Eddie Howe didn’t have much time for when Bournemouth battled relegation at the end of the 2019-20 season.

It was Howe who convinced Danjuma to realize it Premier League She dreams with Bournemouth in a move of 13.7 million pounds ($ 17 million), but that was not exactly planned after a goalless start to the season that ended in relegation. Injuries were again an issue (breaking bones in both feet during a lengthy spell on the sidelines) and any excitement about his return to the side during Project Restart evaporated when Howe dropped him after a 4-1 defeat by Newcastle.

Relegation was the last thing Danjuma wanted, but it would be a stepping stone to the most prolific period of his career.

He was Bournemouth’s Player of the Year in the 2020-21 season, with 17 goals and eight assists in 37 matches. An abundance of these came in the final weeks of the season – 16 goals in 14 matches (11 goals, 5 assists) catapulted Bournemouth into the play-offs as he scored in both legs of their 3-2 aggregate defeat. Brentford.

Playing to the left of the front three, with Dominic Solanke central f David Brooks On the right, Danjuma was a revelation. Given more freedom in a team that didn’t have to defend like the previous season, Danjuma thrived, with his trademark move of cutting in from the left half, hitting his mane and firing a powerful shot – a skill honed through hours of practice when advancing through the PSV side-by-side Stephen Bergwijn.

His pace, accurate control and ability to isolate and tackle defenders were all very good for this level. He found confidence and freedom, and enjoyed football, in stark contrast to a year ago when his specialty was closely linked to the need to run back and work harder off the ball.

His skill set matches being on better teams: this risks classifying him as a luxury player, but his ability and explosiveness can win any match. Nowhere was that more on display than last season under Unai Emery at Villarreal, following a £22m move from Bournemouth. He has thrived under Emery, usually as a left-sided striker in a 4-4-2 or occasionally up front on his own.

Once again, injuries cost him playing time, meaning he only made 17 La Liga appearances, but still scored 10 goals, including a hat-trick against Granada, and six more in the Champions League. scored twice vs Atlanta Then against Juventus In the round of 16 and Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals. In fact, another injury, which means he can’t play in the second leg of the semi-final against him Liverpoolmay be decisive in the elimination of his team.

This season was a different story. He started the season on the sidelines with a muscle problem that curtailed him for the 2021-22 season, and with Emery gone, he reportedly hasn’t seen eye to eye with his successor, Quique Setien. He has started just 10 games in all competitions this season and has been bidding to return to the Premier League.

So, Tottenham get a player eager to start over (again), but one with the ability, skill, finesse in shooting and certainly the confidence to finally make a name for himself in the Premier League. man said earlier “The bigger the stage for me (the better)”, You may feel right at home in one of the most prestigious stadiums in Europe, playing in the most watched league in world football.

The one thing you can’t accuse Danjuma of lacking is self-belief and determination. This is a man whose life had an unimaginably difficult start—at the age of four, his parents divorced and he was briefly homeless before he, his brother Lehner, and his sister Lysette were placed in foster care. His difficult upbringing and his religion (danjuma is a Muslim and he says this makes him a stronger person) shaped his inner drive.

“Where I come from made me the person I am today,” Tell the athlete in 2021. “There are certain things you just can’t replicate. My upbringing was probably harder than anyone else’s, but I’m always grateful and never satisfied. I’m always trying to achieve more because of my past.”

What is his place in Tottenham? He has played most of his career either at inside left, or in a central (and occasionally right) role. Son Heung-min may occupy Danjuma’s favored position now, but with his lack of goals for such a long period of time now, the increased competition can only be a good thing for a Spurs team that hasn’t been fit to compete on three fronts.

At times, Antonio Conte’s bench has looked thin compared to the teams Tottenham compete with at the top of the table. Danjuma’s arrival certainly helps.

“At the earliest Tottenham Hotspur Danjuma said yesterday. Tottenham might not unequivocally describe it in the same terms, but if they fire Danjuma, calling the move a no-brainer would be accurate.

Additional Contributor: Patrick Boyland

(Top photo: Tottenham Hotspur FC/Tottenham Hotspur via Getty Images)