Axel Tuanzebe would be kept on his toes at Ipswich Town if this move gets over the line.
Kieran McKenna’s precarious situation at Portman Road has, no doubt, added a lot of unnecessary distractions to proceedings in Suffolk when transfer targets should be the main priority.
Ipswich will just be praying that he stays put instead of heading out of the door to the likes of Brighton and Hove Albion or Manchester United, with a report from football journalist David Ornstein stating that he could sign a brand new deal very shortly to put an end to all this unwanted speculation.
If that is the case, Ipswich will soon look to press on with a number of deals, which includes this Tottenham Hotspur defender being reportedly on the agenda.
Ipswich looking at hijacking deal
Lilywhite Rose podcast contributor John Wenham has speculated that Ipswich are in for Spurs defender Japhet Tanganga this summer, stating that there was “some talk” involving the 25-year-old wanting to test himself in the Premier League, having starred on loan with Millwall last season in the division below.
This would see Ipswich hijack a potential deal between the Lions and Spurs, with the Mirror reporting earlier in the month that Tanganga was going to relocate to the Den permanently after being allowed to head for the exit door for good by his parent club.
How Tanganga compares to Tuanzebe
Excelling in the second-tier in patches with Millwall – scoring two goals when coming up from the back from 18 total games in the league – Ipswich might view the 6-foot defender as a smart purchase to add strength in depth to the defensive areas ahead of the major step-up.
The two-time England U21 international would also push Axel Tuanzebe all the way on his arrival too, with the wantaway Spurs man capable of playing either at right-back or in a centre-back spot much like the former Man United defender.
| Tuanzebe vs Tanganga – head-to-head stats this season | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stat | Tuanzebe | Tanganga |
| Matches played | 18 | 18 |
| Goals scored | 0 | 2 |
| Assists | 1 | 0 |
| Accurate passes per game | 42.1 | 25.4 |
| Clean sheets | 4 | 5 |
| Interceptions per game | 1.3 | 1.4 |
| Balls recovered per game | 5.1 | 3.3 |
| Clearances per game | 1.9 | 3.3 |
| Duels won | 4.2 | 4.7 |
| Stats per Sofascore | ||
Similar in many aspects of their game when glancing at the table above, with Tanganga beating his Ipswich counterpart in some areas defensively with more duels won and more clearances registered per game this season just gone, the 25-year-old would be a good utility option to get into the building this summer.
Tanganga’s addition to the Ipswich ranks could even begin to be the end of Tuanzebe in a Tractor Boys strip, with the ex-Red Devils man burning a significant hole in the Suffolk club’s back pocket at £20k-per-week considering his in-and-out nature in the first-team.
With Tanganga pocketing a healthy £25k-per-week, Tuanzebe potentially exiting could finance a deal to take place for the Spurs defender to join.
The 26-year-old did start the last four Ipswich games of the season, performing to the best of his ability when the pressure was on with six duels won on the final day, but Tanganga could now be viewed as an upgrade on the high earner.
Once described as being an “outstanding” talent by Gabriel Agbonlahor when still aiming to make it at Spurs, with the defender amassing 50 first-team appearances across a number of seasons, Portman Road might now be his next permanent home where he might show off his Millwall best regularly even when making the leap up.
Able to offer Ipswich more depth in the centre-back spots as well, with more numbers arguably needed here as well to compete with the likes of George Edmundson and Cameron Burgess, Tanganga looks to tick a lot of boxes when it comes to summer buys coming in that are ready to battle away in the top-flight.
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