Tottenham have gone from being hijacked to becoming the hijackers after holding up Arnaut Danjuma’s proposed move from Villarreal to Everton before sending him down to London.
On Monday, it had looked as though the 25-year-old winger was certain to join Everton and give the manager-less, relegation-threatened club a much-needed boost following Frank Lampard’s dismissal. The Dutchman had undergone a medical and agreed personal terms on a loan deal until the end of the season.
However, with the paperwork incomplete, Spurs stepped in and have taken the Dutchman for themselves. Danjuma is in London to undergo more tests, but having come through Everton’s examinations unscathed, it seems likely that he will get the all clear at Hotspur Way.
It is a crushing blow for Everton given their current predicament and obvious attacking problems – only Wolves have scored fewer Premier League goals. Ironically, a major reason for Everton’s lack of spark is that they lost their top scorer from last season to Spurs in the summer when Richarlison moved for £60m. In the space of seven months, Spurs have bought Everton’s best attacker and then gazumped their move for his potential replacement.
Everton’s burning sense of injustice is a feeling that Spurs themselves will be familiar with. In 2013, the north London club believed that they had wrapped up a deal to sign Willian from Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala after he had completed a medical, only for Chelsea to swoop in and sign him instead. The then-Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho suggested that his future employers had paid the price for not conducting the medical “in secret”.
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It will far trickier for Danjuma to force his way into Antonio Conte’s starting line-up than it would have been under Everton’s prospective new boss. Conte has plenty of firepower already at his disposal with Harry Kane backed up by a supporting cast of Son Heung-min, Dejan Kulusevski, Richarlison and Bryan Gil. Kane has started in all 21 of Tottenham’s Premier League games and Son has in all but one.
Nevertheless, it is clear to see why a move to a club that has a Champions League glamour tie with AC Milan coming up and are pushing for the top four again, would be preferable to signing up for a relegation battle, even if his game-time will be more restricted.
A left-sided centre-back and right-sided wing-back are arguably bigger transfer priorities for Spurs this window than a wide forward, but it’s a low-risk, potentially high-upside move. Danjuma was the star of Villarreal’s eye-catching run to last season’s Champions League semi-final, scoring six goals in 11 appearances, including a winner against Bayern Munich in the quarters.
He also netted 10 times in 23 La Liga games and was second only to Karim Benzema for shots on goal per 90 minutes. That directness is reflected in his dribbling too: in his final campaign with Bournemouth (2020-21), he was fourth for dribbles attempted in the Championship, while he was seventh for the same metric in last season’s Champions League.
In a team that is generally set up to play on the counter-attack, Danjuma’s pace, trickery and eye for goal should come in handy. When asked by the Spanish newspaper El Pais what his best attribute was last year, he replied: “That I am unpredictable. If you can dribble, pass, shoot, play one-twos and move into spaces, the opponents won’t know what to attend to. The question is to sharpen your tools and [then] recognise what the game needs.”
He has a similar skillset to Son and with the South Korean struggling for form, Danjuma will give Conte another high-calibre option for the inside forward position on the left. And as demonstrated with Villarreal, he is also effective when deployed in a two-man attack too, should Conte deviate from his favoured 3-4-3 formation to a 3-5-2 system at any point.
Sceptics may suggest that the last-minute, opportunistic nature of the deal is proof that the Spurs board are looking to appease both Conte and the club’s disenchanted fanbase by making a signing (any signing). However, Danjuma could prove to be a hit if he can replicate his top Villarreal performances in English football. Either way, a rough reception at Goodison Park on 1 April no doubt awaits.
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