By OkayGoal
Tosin Adarabioyo secured a move to Tottenham Hotspur on deadline day as he arrived from Chelsea in a transfer worth ÂŁ7 million plus add-ons. His addition saw, Kevin Danso is leaving for Sunderland and Tosin is effectively coming in as his direct replacement for the Austrian centre-back.
But while this transfer domino keeps the numbers at equilibrium at Hotspur Way, there is a layer of puzzle hidden behind it, one that makes you question whether the Lilywhites have actually improved with this layer of moves.
Why Kevin Danso’s exit matters as much as Tosin Adarabioyo Tottenham transfer
You can’t really analyse this signing without starting with Danso. He wanted to leave in search of regular first-team football and Sunderland have moved for him on loan with an obligation to buy reportedly worth around £25 million. There’s a genuine case for disappointment here.
Danso is a good defender. He helped Tottenham time and again last season showing his physical prowess complemented by his aggressive yet composed approach. There was clear value in keeping him around as a squad option at N17.
But the other side of that argument holds up too. If a player wants regular football and De Zerbi cannot guarantee it, there’s limited value in keeping someone unhappy, especially when Tottenham can potentially receive £25 million for him and replace him with a defender costing £7 million plus add-ons. Financially, that logic is easy to follow. But when you start considering the possible impact on the pitch, that is where the real questions starts.
What kind of defender is Tosin Adarabioyo?
The first thing to know is the size. This is a genuinely big centre-back, 6ft 5in, and that immediately connects back to Tottenham’s opening weeks of the season. Brentford targeted the back post. Newcastle targeted the back post. Direct opposition wingers staying high, crosses whipped into the penalty area which left the Lilywihtes repeatedly exposed in the air.
That is where bringing in a 6ft 5in centre-back straight after identifying that exact problem doesn’t look like a coincidence.
His aerial numbers back it up. In simple terms, Tosin wins roughly two out of every three aerial duels he contests, which is genuinely useful when a team launches a 60-yard diagonal into the box and somebody simply has to win the header. But height alone doesn’t fix everything.
The real issue Tottenham have shown isn’t just about height. Its about the CBs covering distances and positioning themselves in a wat where they can pry away the danger. For that to happen they have to understand the danger early and should need to have strong communication between the full-back and centre-back, complemented by the midfield helping them by pressuring on the man delivering the cross in the first place.
Tosin can help win the header but he cannot, by himself, stop the diagonal pass from being played at all.
Why Roberto De Zerbi likes Tosin Adarabioyo
Tosin is not simply an old-school defender who heads everything away and hands responsibility to someone else. He is genuinely comfortable in possession and secure in his distribution which matters enormously in De Zerbi’s system where centre-backs are the starting point of the attack.
RDZ wants his CBs to be receiving under pressure and waiting and baiting the press before they can look out for a pass into the midfield or switching play when the sequence demands it.
Adarabioyo has that willingness to go longer with his distribution is also worth watching. He is not Toby Alderweireld pinging 60-yard passes every five minutes but the ability to switch play quickly could matter a great deal with Savinho isolated on one flank, Mudryk potentially on the other and Marmoush threatening in behind.
Experience shouldn’t be underestimated either. Tosin turns 29 later this month and has made more than 100 Premier League appearances, previously at Fulham before Chelsea. This is not a player learning English football from scratch. He knows the physicality, he knows what defending Premier League strikers actually demands and for £7 million that experience is pretty cheap.
The real question: is he better than Kevin Danso?
This is where the doubt genuinely starts. Tottenham are not signing Tosin as a development project. He is 28, and everyone broadly knows what he is already. The comparison that matters is not Tosin against Virgil van Dijk or William Saliba, it’s Tosin against Kevin Danso. If Danso has left and Tosin is replacing him, have Tottenham actually improved their fourth centre-back option?
Danso offers aggression, physicality, and a proactive willingness to step into duels. Tosin offers something genuinely different, he has a better frame and an added aerial presence complemented by Premier League experience, comfort in possession, and a significantly lower cost relative to what Tottenham are receiving for Danso. Maybe the right question isn’t whether Tosin is better than Danso in isolation. Maybe it’s whether he’s better suited to what this specific Tottenham squad needs right now.
Tottenham have already shown vulnerability with space around the back four, teams playing over the top, quick wingers attacking the channels behind.
Playing in a team that wants to push high up the pitch means centre-backs regularly defend transitions, turn and run, cover large spaces and get dragged into isolated one-versus-one duels. That is the part still to be proven. He is comfortable defending the box, comfortable competing in the air and comfortable physically.
But what will be difficult would be when Tottenham’s line sits 40 yards from goal and someone attacks the space in behind him.
Why the price makes this an easy deal to understand regardless
ÂŁ7 million in this market for an experienced Premier League centre-back as squad depth is not a significant gamble. Spend ÂŁ40 million on Tosin and this becomes a completely different conversation.
Sign him as the man meant to transform the defence, and again, a different conversation entirely. But that is not what this is.
Tottenham already have Jan Paul van Hecke, Micky van de Ven and Marcos Senesi. Adding another profile at this price by replacing a player who wanted out while banking a significant net financial gain that can be redeployed elsewhere and whether that’s wages, future transfers, or January business it is sensible squad building rather than a marquee statement.
He doesn’t need to walk in as an automatic starter and realistically he won’t. He’s competing within a genuine rotation against the likes of Van Hecke, Van de Ven and Senesi. Different games call for different profiles.
Against a big, physical centre-forward someone like Tosin becomes genuinely interesting. Defending set pieces, it is the same. Protecting a lead late in a game while getting bombarded with crosses, that’s exactly when you want the 6ft 5in option available.
Author Opinion
This isn’t a glamorous signing, and it isn’t going to sell shirts or walk straight into Tottenham’s best eleven tomorrow. But that might be exactly fine. Good recruitment isn’t always about star names, sometimes it’s identifying precisely what a squad lacks and finding someone who provides it. Tottenham have looked vulnerable in the air. Tosin is 6ft 5in. They needed a right-footed centre-back for depth. He provides it. Danso wanted to leave, and financially this looks like sensible business either way.
What remains genuinely unanswered is whether he can defend large spaces in a system that pushes this high up the pitch, whether he copes when the press gets bypassed, and whether he becomes anything more than squad depth. Most importantly, whether Tottenham are actually stronger with Tosin in the building instead of Danso. That is not a question worth pretending to answer today. But for ÂŁ7 million, it is one worth finding out.