Dejan Kulusevski is set to become an important part of Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham Hotspur plans next season after the club made his deal permanent.
Spurs announced on Saturday that they had made the 23-year-old's loan move from Juventus a permanent one with the Swede having signed a five-year contract until 2028. The Serie A side confirmed that the north London club had "exercised the option rights for the definitive acquisition of the registration rights of the player Dejan Kulusevski for a consideration of €30 million (£25.6m), to be paid in six financial years".
Some reports in Italy last month indicated that Kulusevski would be returning to Juventus at the end of his loan deal at Spurs as there was only an obligation to buy him if they qualified for the Champions League next season, which they did not after a disappointing campaign.
football.london reported back then that Tottenham always fully intended to take up the option to keep the Sweden international in N17 and that soon became clear in them using him front and centre to promote their July 23 pre-season friendly against Leicester in Bangkok, the month after his loan ended.
The club also made Kulusevski's name one of the five players fans were able to access through a quick tab to get on the back of their new Nike home shirt for next season as they always fully intended him to be there for the following campaign.
Despite reported interest from Newcastle, Spurs had that safety net to call upon of the original 35m euros option to buy Kulusevski (£29.9m), payable within five years, so negotiated with Juventus and got the Italian side to knock another £4.3m off the price tag and another year in which to pay it off.
READ MORE: James Maddison and Tottenham's summer transfer plans to help transform Postecoglou's midfield
Postecoglou approved the move and Kulusevski was keen to stay at the Premier League club so the deal was signed and sealed before the loan had reached its conclusion.
It's a bargain price to sign a player with so much potential, with Spurs getting a Premier League-ready player for £25.6m for the next five years at least. They paid 3m euros (£2.5m) for the first six months of his loan and 7m euros (£6m) for last season, and although that second campaign was tough for Kulusevski, it will have been money well spent for the future on his adaptation and education in the English game.
For the 23-year-old already has 22 direct goal involvements in 48 Premier League matches - 15 assists and seven goals. Kulusevski's start to life at Tottenham was so dramatic that he ended up as the first player to finish a Premier League season in the top ten in assists in less than 20 appearances as he helped sweep the club to a top four finish.
He's a creative player who also likes the tough side of football, the hard work in training and pushing himself to the limit.
When football.london asked Kulusevski last summer about having once said he loved to suffer and feel pain, he said: "It’s amazing, it's really amazing to have pain everywhere. I think it’s a fantastic thing to have you know? I love to work hard because everything in life comes from working hard. It’s a little bit difficult, of course, nothing is easy, but this is what you have to do to become a champion."
This season has been tougher for the Swede for a variety of reasons. He suffered a hamstring injury while on international duty last September that kept him out of action for a month and then after the World Cup break a knee problem kept him out for another couple of weeks. It meant that he only played three Premier League matches in four months.
That disrupted his rhythm over the campaign and Kulusevski went from six goal involvements (one goal and five assists) in his first 10 matches of the Premier League season to one goal and two assists in the remaining 20.
"It's been a long season, very long. It started very good and then I had a couple of injuries for the first time in my career," Kulusevski said last month. "Then after that I felt very good but I started dipping. I had a dip from maybe February, when I didn't play so good.
"Then I started playing better and in the last months I played pretty good but the only thing missing is maybe the final pass and the goals. So of course a disappointing season but no regrets. I know I gave it my all."
When asked whether Spurs fans would see the best of him next season, he added: "To be honest there were many games this season that I also played good. As I mentioned I had one month where I struggled but that is normal - no players don't struggle.
"You want to keep that time as short as possible so when you're not in a good mood maybe you play badly in two or three games, and not a whole month. I have to be better in that aspect but I know that I can much more in the future."
The main issue for Kulusevski was the second season syndrome when opposition defenders and managers knew more about him and the need to prepare for his movement. The Swede's favourite move is to cut inside from the right flank and to use his left foot to devastating effect, whether to shoot or cross.
At the best of times that's difficult to defend against as an individual even when you know it's coming, but with more defenders expecting it they can work as a unit to negate that option and the benefit for Tottenham is that it will have forced Kulusevski to continue to adapt and add to his game.
It's easy to forget that the Sweden international is only 23-year-old because the former Serie A Young Player of the Year already has so much experience to his name with 170 top flight appearances in Italy and England.
Antonio Conte said of Kulusevski in his first season: "He is showing that he is a fantastic player for the present but also he if he continues in this way he can become a really important player. He is strong physically, good technically, he has no fear of the opponent or the tackle."
He added: "We are talking about an important prospect. He is very young, and despite his young age, he has good experience with the national team. To play with Juventus for one year and a half, you understand what it means to live with pressure. Probably he could crack [into the elite] in the future.
"Also because I can see the intensity, the will, and the desire to play. As every day in training session, he is a type of player in his mind to become a top player in his career."
Former Italy star Antonio Cassano blasted Juventus boss Massimiliano Allegri for letting him and Rodrigo Bentancur go, calling the Swede "sensational, with assists and goals".
Acting head coach Ryan Mason lavished praise on Kulusevski last month when speaking to football.london about the Swede.
"I love Deki as a player. I think he's got so much room to grow and be a top, top player, even though he already is a top, top player," he said.
There are no doubts within Tottenham that last season was simply a learning curve for Kulusevski and he is expected to flourish within Postecoglou's attacking system.
The Australian expects his wingers to have the ability to beat a man with pace or skill, be strong in the transition and able to press high up the pitch in order to regain possession. Kulusevski ticks all of those boxes but he can also be more than that.
Last summer, the Sweden international told football.london that his favourite position is actually a more central one.
"It’s a very good question, I’ve been thinking about this all my whole life. I always thought of me being a No 10, I still think I am, but my best results as a football player have always come being a right winger, so I don’t know!" he said. "In the future, we will see where I’ll be. Yeah I can probably play wing-back too. It’s football, you want to help a good team, you want to play, enjoy, work hard and have fun."
Kulusevski played in the number 10 role well towards the end of this season under Mason, showing that he can take the ball in either direction and with either foot to cause problems aplenty for the opposition as well as threading passes through to others.
Postecoglou teams play with either a 4-3-3 formation or a 4-2-3-1 and that makes Kulusevski one of his most versatile weapons because the Swede can play on the right of a front three or a three behind a striker as well as in the centre of the three behind the centre-forward.
The new coach's midfield three contains a number six pivot player behind two attacking number eights who get from box-to-box and support the striker. Kulusevski's tactical awareness and skill set could also see him used in one of those attacking roles if Postecoglou looks to convert him.
There is an excitement around Tottenham about how Kulusevski will flourish in whatever role Postecoglou utilises him in and that fee was a bargain for a player who is nowhere near his peak.
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