According to Setanta Sports, highly rated 16-year-old Jose-Paul Mpoku has agreed to sign with Tottenham Hotspur. The youngster picked a move to White Hart Lane over Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.
“Belgian sources claim that Tottenham have beaten Manchester United in the battle for the signing of midfielder Jose-Paul Mpoku.
The Standard Liege youngster has just turned 16 and has been strongly linked with a move to The Premier League following promising displays with youth teams.
The Congo-born rookie has reportedly agreed to move to White Hart Lane, as Spurs continue to try and sign young players for the future.”
Mpoku worked out for both Manchester United and Spurs, and was obviously quite impressive. Financial deals of the transfer have not been released yet, as Spurs will likely have to part with (by Premiership standards) a fairly paltry sum of money to grab him from his current Belgian club, Standard Liege. According to a Standard Liege spokesman, “Paul-Jose will play for Spurs’ Under-17 team, and live with a host family.”
This move, like the one for fellow 16-year-old John Bostock, is another positive move for the future of the club. Though not a lot is known about Mpoku’s ability to play at the highest level, it is known that the speedy player has a lot of potential to be something special. Over the years, Arsenal and Manchester United, two clubs best known for buying and developing young talent, have shown that you can never have too much young talent at a club. Whether or not it will pan out remains to be seen, but I love this move for Spurs and for Mpoku. This is another solid decision from Juande Ramos.