Tottenham Hotspur welcomed their summer signing Destiny Udogie to north London at the weekend for their game against West Ham United.
When does Destiny Udogie join up with Spurs?
The Lilywhites signed the Italian back in the summer but allowed the youngster to return to Udinese for the 2022/23 campaign to continue his development.
Udogie has been playing his football in Serie A but travelled to his future home to visit those at the club for the first time on the weekend ahead of their game against the Hammers.
Spurs sent the left wing-back back to Italy on a season-long loan which means the Italian now has just a matter of months remaining in north-eastern Italy before making his move to London.
And speaking on his YouTube channel, journalist Alasdair Gold has provided an insight into Udogie’s visit to his new north London home ahead of the summer:
“Destiny Udogie was there at the stadium. It was a bit of a low-key visit. I think someone said that there was a tweet that went out that he was going to be on N17 Live, the pre-Spurs show thing, but I think that was a bit of miscommunication.
“I think it was always meant to be a very under-the-radar visit. So I guess not to upset anyone at the Udinese end and maybe the fans as well, because obviously, they lost 3-1 at Inter on [Saturday] night.”
“But it was a good experience for him not only to see this magnificent kind of place he’s going to play in, but also when he flew over to sign back in August, it was very much a fly-by/whirlwind visit – get in, get signed, do the medical, get out. He didn’t really have any chance to talk to his teammates or get to know them. So this was a little experience for him to meet them.”
What will Udogie’s arrival mean for Ryan Sessegnon’s future?
It has been yet another difficult season for Ryan Sessegnon who finds himself sidelined once again through another hamstring issue.
And it is reported that this latest issue could see the Englishman miss around six weeks’ worth of action meaning Spurs may be forced to use Ben Davies to rotate with Ivan Perisic.
However, injuries aside, it has not exactly been a groundbreaking season for the 22-year-old who has only been able to return Spurs with two goals and one assist throughout his 23 appearances in all competitions (via Transfermarkt).
What should Spurs do with Sessegnon in the summer?
Keep
Loan
Sell
To put that into context, Perisic arrived in the summer and has been able to return Spurs with nine assists across all competitions.
Looking ahead to the summer, Perisic will have one-year remaining on his deal with the Lilywhites and Sessegnon will have another two years left.
So the addition of Udogie will provide Spurs with a surplus of options but that could quickly change in 2024 if Perisic is to leave at the end of his deal.
This will likely leave the north Londoners with a headache as to how they deal with Sessegnon.
Udogie has provided more shot-creating actions, tackles and passes per 90 minutes this season for Udinese than Sessegnon has for Spurs (via FBref).
With the notion of Spurs looking to utilise Udogie’s talent next season, it’ll be interesting to see what lies ahead for Sessegnon who has not exactly laid down a real claim for a spot in Conte’s starting XI.
