A few days ago, we witnessed a flurry of articles in both Belgium and Norway covering the sudden interest from Tottenham in Antonio Nusa.
The winger, who was a target for Chelsea back in the summer, burst onto the scene over the last few months both with Club Brugge and the Norway national team, which led to the Blues making an offer of €30m that was eventually rejected.
HLN in Belgium have a big article about all the players that could leave the Jupiler Pro League in the future before they’ve even fully broken through, including Nusa, who is on the radar of Tottenham and other teams.
It’s first pointed out that Spurs and Brugge are ‘in discussions’ for the winger, with the Belgians ‘aiming for €30m’ to get a deal over the line.
This type of transfer certainly isn’t uncommon in the Jupiler Pro League, where big clubs come sniffing all the time, and the reason is explained by sports economic Wim Lagae.
He said: “Clubs also look at resale value in the top five competitions. They will not sell someone at 34 for a profit in the future, but will do for a young guy of 19. It is the valuation exercise they make.”
The use of Transfermarkt has become prevalent to try and judge how much a player is worth, with Nusa currently valued at €17m.
Of course, Brugge, in talks with a rich Premier League club like Tottenham, will try to get more, and that’s where the CIES valuations can come in, where the young Norwegian is valued at €26.7m, with the Swiss research agency claiming they base their judgment on 6000 transfers from the past.
Lagae adds: “The question is whether or not the element of future returns has been included in the valuation on Transfermarkt. In any case, Vermeeren (€30m on Transfermarkt) is valued as the most expensive player in Belgium, followed by El Khannouss, the slightly older Skov Olsen and Nusa (€22m, €18m and €17m respectively).”
One thing that we have noticed with these transfers, especially when they involve players from Scandinavia, at least in terms of reporting, is an initial large influx of articles all saying the same, followed by few updates.
This is likely the agent’s doing, which makes sense when compared to the constant stream of minute changes we get from Italy, where representatives and intermediaries like to talk a lot.
Therefore, Tottenham fans shouldn’t get worried by the lack of continuous updates, because the fact HLN continue to report that negotiations are still ongoing is the only thing what you want, or need, to be hearing.
