Tottenham were the biggest winners of the Premier League weekend, dominating an Aston Villa side that pipped them in the Conference League and Champions League races in the last two seasons.
Spurs took Unai Emery and his men to school, with Pape Sarr bossing an Amadou Onana and Youri Tielemans-led midfield while Dominic Solanke scored a brace to cap off a brilliant all-around performance – customary for him since moving from Bournemouth to North London.
Meanwhile, James Maddison even got in on the act with a cheeky free kick off the bench to score Spurs’ fourth goal of the afternoon and seal the deal for Ange Postecoglou.
Lost in all the praise for the regulars was a scintillating defensive performance from Radu Dragusin, whose name could barely be heard on the broadcast, such was the assuredness of his display at the back.
Dragusin was one of the best players in Serie A in the first half of the 2023/24 season, as the Genoa man made Juventus, as has so often been the case, look quite foolish for letting him go after he was their best center back prospect.
Tottenham scooped him up, making Dragusin their latest young Juve standout, and he has been solid for the Premier League giants whenever he does get a chance to play.
Dragusin stepped up big time next to fellow former Juve prospect and, later, Serie A standout at another club, Cristiano Romero, against Ollie Watkins and Aston Villa in the absence of an injured Micky van de Ven.
The thing is, Dragusin’s chances have been few and far between, and that’s why there have been increasing rumors out of Italy linking the Romanian international to a move back to Serie A.
Tuttosport are the latest to chime in, with the Turin-based outlet reporting that Tottenham are actually the ones open to loaning Radu Dragusin back to Juventus, who could use some additional center back help after Gleison Bremer’s ACL tear.
Dragusin is a proven Serie A commodity for Juve and one of the best man-markers in European football right now. Per Tuttosport, the way the loan makes sense for Tottenham is their apparent belief that Dragusin would lose transfer value by sitting on the bench behind Romero and Van de Ven.
Even though Dragusin is too good to be benched, he’s also too important for Tottenham to loan out in the middle of a Champions League race, because Romero and Van de Ven, as we just saw, are not injury proof.
A loan to Juve is preferable to selling Dragusin outright to Napoli just one year after buying him from Genoa, but you have to think that the most sensible thing is for Tottenham to hang onto the 22-year-old, especially after how brilliant he was against Aston Villa.
