Lilywhite Rose: 'Massive statement of intent' from Tottenham as youngster's first-team path is laid out with senior sale

Jun’ai Byfield is making headlines at Tottenham at the moment.

Byfield made his debut in Tottenham’s 3-0 Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund on 20 January.

The 17-year-old became Spurs’ youngest ever player in the competition when he replaced the injured Lucas Bergvall in the 62nd minute.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium outfit could sanction an exit to allow Byfield to get more opportunities in the first-team.

Why Tottenham have to sell one senior star

John Wenham believes that Tottenham should sell Radu Dragusin, despite Frank allegedly nixing a potential move to Roma.

The owner of the popular Lilywhite Rose X account thinks that the fact that Byfield was handed his debut against Dortmund was a statement of intent, and means that the Romanian could make way.

Speaking exclusively to Tottenham News, he said: “Here’s one I think Tottenham, we’re talking about we can’t afford to lose players, here’s one I think we could afford to lose and I think it’d be sensible squad planning to do so.

“You know, we’ve got obviously Kevin Danso came in against Dortmund with Van de Ven suspended and did really, really well and he’s definitely established himself as the immediate backup to Romero and Van de Ven.

“But when you’ve also got, you know, young Jun’ai Byfield came on, he didn’t just come on for a couple of minutes, he came on for 35 minutes. You know, that was huge faith in him, I know it was against 10 men, but massive statement of intent from the club showing their faith in young Jun’ai Byfield.

“Obviously the England under-18 captain has featured with the Tottenham first team in the pre- season in the summer, but this was his first team involvement, became our youngest ever Champions League player.

“If we’re going to show an actual pathway for these players, we’ve got to stop signing players that are just a blocker to their progress. You know, I consider Junai Byfield, you know, extremely good, but we’ve also got Luka Vuskovic on loan at Hamburg performing extremely well every single week.

“If we’re going to make a pathway for him, it would be sensible in my opinion to allow Dragusin to leave on a permanent basis this month, in the knowledge that in the summer Vuskovic is coming back to the club.

“You know, when you’ve got Jun’ai Byfield coming through as well, that’s five centre-backs vying for two spaces. So I think it would be fine to allow Dragusin to go this month without signing a replacement.”

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Who would be left at centre-back for Tottenham if Dragusin left?

Dragusin is a squad player at the most, with Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero being that starters for the Lilywhites.

Kevin Danso and Ben Davies are probably ahead of him in the pecking order, when it comes to backup options, although the latter is currently injured.

Then, Byfield is waiting in the wings for more opportunities, and Vuskovic is on loan at Hamburg, but is expected to be a future starter.

Therefore, as Wenham states, Tottenahm can afford to let the 23-year-old depart, and should not be impacted too much.

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The post Lilywhite Rose: 'Massive statement of intent' from Tottenham as youngster's first-team path is laid out with senior sale appeared first on Tottenham Hotspur News.