Heading To Tottenham In Summer Too Soon – Former Striker Advises Top Talent | OneFootball

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Former Belgian striker Patrick Goots believes that going back to Tottenham Hotspur in the summer would be too soon for Spurs loanee Luka Vuskovic and he feels the teenager would have better exposure playing in Belgium for one more season.

The young Croatian had no shortage of suitors for his signature, but Spurs saw off competition from Manchester City to secure Vuskovic for a significant £12m back in 2023 when he was only 16 years old.

He has been playing for Belgian top-flight sides since then and this season Vuskovic was loaned out to KVC Westerlo, where fellow Spurs loanee Alfie Devine is also on loan.

The Croatia youth international is set to join the north London club in the summer of 2025, but he will still be only 18.

Goots feels that going to Spurs in the summer would be a bit too early for the highly-rated defender and he feels that Vuskovic will also have a similar view.

The ex-Belgian top-flight attacker has advised the teenage defender to stay for one more season at least in the Belgian Pro League to ready himself for the Premier League.

“Vuskovic is very versatile – he only lacks pure speed – and he has a good head; he will also realise that it is too early for a return to Tottenham”, Goots told Belgian daily Gazet van Antwerpen (via Voetbal Krant) about the Spurs loan star.

He also sees a good potential destination for the Spurs man which would provide him with a step up – Antwerp.

“I think he is a very interesting profile for Antwerp, where Toby Alderweireld and Zeno Van den Bosch will be out of the heart of the defence after this season.

“Competing for the prizes, and who knows, playing in Europe, would be an ideal intermediate step”, he added.

Despite being a central defender, the teenager has an unusual trait of scoring goals and he has scored seven league goals in 25 games this season.

Spurs have struggled for defensive options for the majority of this current campaign and Ange Postecoglou has shown his willingness to give young players time on the pitch.

Now it remains to be seen if Spurs will loan Vuskovic out for another season or if he will be getting minutes at the north Londoners next term.

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What Spurs’ squad will look like for the opening day of next season remains to be seen, as does whether Postecoglou will keep his job.

At the age of just 18, parachuting Vuskovic into a Tottenham team that will be under pressure to do better next season would put him under unnecessary pressure.

Goots is right – a season at Antwerp, who expect to fight for trophies in Belgium, unlike Westerlo, would be a smart next step for the Croatian.