Tottenham forced into £50m player 'sacrifice' due to 'lack of planning' - Insider

Tottenham Hotspur were effectively left with no choice but to accept losing Luka Vuskovic in exchange for signing Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton.

That is according to former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes that the Lilywhites have emerged on the wrong end of those two deals so far.

Spurs splashed out £52million to sign Van Hecke in June, knowing that Vuskovic was unhappy at the club, before the latter ultimately made the switch to Brighton for £50m in July.

Wyness believes that Vuskovic's frustration proved a lack of "succession planning" from the North London outfit, and he is adamant that they will be made to pay for it.

The former boardroom man described the Croatian starlet as a "generational talent," and feels that he will be worth a lot more than £50m in the coming years.

The pair of centre-backs have quickly become key players for their new clubs, but it is not a trade that Spurs are overly happy with at the moment.

Tottenham lose out to Brighton in deal

Everton’s former chief Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that Brighton have taken full advantage of poor decision-making from Spurs.

He made it clear that the Lilywhites do not have the "stability" in their backline for a young star like Vuskovic to have developed properly, and that was a major contributing factor behind his exit.

Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider's Inside Track podcast, he explained why the 19-year-old's exit was effectively a "sacrifice" in the end.

"It's early days, and I think we've got to stress it is five games in. But there is a feeling that certainly that's the way it's going (Brighton better off)," he said.

"The weakness from Spurs' point of view is that they were sacrificing a young generational talent for a 26-year-old who needed to come in because they hadn't got the succession plan in place for stability in the defence. 

"That's where the fault lies, and it probably is the case that Brighton will have got the better of the deal. I think that will probably be the case as we end up at the end of the season and review it. Certainly, we've got to believe that's the case right now. 

"It's the lack of succession, where we know Brighton have been superb in succession planning. Here is a gap where Spurs didn't have the succession planning in place, and now they've been made to pay for it, and they've had to sacrifice a young generational talent for that."

Tottenham could still profit from Luka Vuskovic

Former Spurs scout Bryan King told Football Insider at the start of September that he was simply baffled by his former club's decision to let Vuskovic go, and felt that he was ready to start for them.

The starlet has excelled since moving to Brighton, and has a pass completion rate of 90.8 per cent at the moment, while also winning almost 60 per cent of his aerial duels.

That is merely a continuation of the form that saw him shine in the Bundesliga during his loan spell with Hamburg last term, which saw him emerge on the radar at Barcelona and Bayern Munich as a result.

Spurs' decision to sell him looks poor right now, but they can cling to the fact that they hold a 20 per cent sell-on clause for any future moves.

With Vuskovic's potential clearly sky-high, there is still a strong possibility that he could inadvertently boost Tottenham's coffers again in the coming years.