Luton Town reportedly hold transfer interest in Tottenham defender
Luton Town are starting to up their transfer activity as they recently confirmed the signing of Chiedozie Ogbene on a free transfer from Rotherham and are set to announce Barnsley centre-back Mads Anderson as their transfer record fee at any given moment. With these two new additions, rumours have been flying all over the place.
The latest rumour regarding the Hatters comes from journalist Ben Jacobs, who has suggested that the Premier League newcomers are interested in Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Japhet Tanganga.
The Hatters are reportedly interested in acquiring the 24-year-old Spurs centre-back who has fallen out of favour in the past few months. Tanganga has been with the London side his whole career after coming through the Youth system where he began in 2009. He made his first appearance for the senior team in September 2019 in the EFL Cup as Spurs were knocked out on penalties by League Two Colchester. Since then, he has made 50 senior appearances for the Top 6 side.
The Spurs academy graduate is a versatile defender, that can play as both a central defender and a right-back. He plays with an aggressive approach and likes to get up close and personally with tricky attackers. But Tanganga has recently fallen out of favour amongst the Spurs rankings after all of Antonie Conte’s predecessors have not given him much of a look in.
Although Spurs have just appointed a new manager in ex-Celtic boss, Ange Postecoglou, Tanganga may still be out of the picture at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. With his contract expiring in 2025, the 24-year-old still has 2 years left on his deal, but has gathered a number of clubs’ interest this summer window with the Hatters being one of the interested teams.
Luton will have to fight competition from abroad as Italian side Atalanta have expressed that they are also keen, the Italian side finished 5th in the Serie A last season so have qualified for the Europa League competition for the upcoming campaign. Along with the offer of European football, Atalanta will most likely be able to offer a lot more money than the Hatters. A move abroad could be tempting for Tanganga to kick start his career and play regular first-team football and he may look to Fikayo Tomori at AC Milan or Chris Smalling at Roma and weigh up his options from there.
With Luton about to announce the signing of Mads Anderson from Barnsley and having Gabe Osho, Reece Burke, Amari’i Bell and potentially Dan Potts and Tom Lockyer on their books if they sign a new contract, their options at centre-back will not be short for next season. However, Tanganga could bring valuable Premier League experience as he has made 50 appearances in the top flight for a big six team, not to mention that he has played in all three European competitions – The Champions League, The Europa League and The Conference League.