Former Tottenham Hotspur boss Martin Jol believes that Luka Vuskovic is going to become a better player than current Spurs captain Cristian Romero.
The young Croatian centre-back finally arrived at Spursthis summer after signing from Hajduk Split two years ago. He was not able to move to England until he was 18-years-old which meant loans at Radomiak in Poland and Westerlo in Belgium before making the switch the Premier League club in July.
After a pre-season which brought a goal and assist in the opening friendly against Reading, new head coach Thomas Frank felt Vuskovic would benefit from a loan at a higher level than before and the teenager agreed with a move to Bundesliga side Hamburg, where Jol was once the manager.
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In an interview with football.london regarding the departed chairman Daniel Levy, Jol made it clear that he believes Levy's chances of sporting success were undone by recruitment failures, but he does not believe Vuskovicis one of the club's poor purchases over the years.
"[Levy was] commercially unbelievable, but 80% of his time, his recruitment staff were terrible. That is what I think, because people keep on criticising him about not spending money but I think they spent £700million or so over the last four or five years," said the Dutchman.
"The amazing thing is, how can you spend £700million, and there's not one player in this squad who can go to Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea. I mean [Mohammed] Kudus went from Ajax, not to Chelsea, not to Man City, he went to West Ham, and of course he's very talented, but he's not better than [Dejan] Kulusevski, 100% not, but I know him from Ajax very well, he's so talented.
"But I mean, he wouldn't go to Chelsea or Man City or Man United or Liverpool. You see Liverpool, they want it, they buy it. But I mean Richarlison wouldn't go to Arsenal or Chelsea or whatever, all these players. How many players are there in the Spurs team now, who would be bought by one of the big four or five?
"[Cristian] Romerocould go anywhere but you feel like if he plays for a while at his top level, he will get injured. Romero is a good, decent defender, but I will tell you one thing, the guy they sent to Hamburg now - Luka Vuskovic - will be better."
That's a big statement with Romero being a World Cup and two-time Copa America winner and having been described by international team-mate Lionel Messi as the best defender in the world
Vuskovic has an old head on young shoulders and admitted after his move to Germany that while his time will come in the Premier League, he is not ready yet.
"Yes, they offered me an option to stay, to play in case of injury or cup matches, but I wanted continuous minutes," the defender said in an interview with Germanijak. "They have Romero and Van de Ven playing there, two of the best centre-backs in the world at the moment. I believe in myself, but it's really difficult to play next to them. I've faced them and I realised that I still have to work harder. A lot of work and a little luck, so I'll be back."
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