Tottenham’s DeAndre Yedlin Joins Newcastle United

DeAndre Yedlin is the latest player to leave Tottenham this summer.

Tottenham have sold right-back DeAndre Yedlin to Newcastle United for £5 million.

It’s the same amount that the Magpies received when Watford signed Daryl Janmaat a few hours earlier.

With a hole at right-back, Rafa Benítez saw Yedlin as a perfect replacement for the Dutch international.

Now that a deal has been completed, Daniel Levy earned a nice profit of at least £2.25 million, on a player who made only one senior appearance for Spurs.

Now that the U.S. international has signed a day after arriving to Tyneside, DeAndre Yedlin conducted an interview that was posted on Newcastle’s website.

“Newcastle is such a big and historic club, and I’m excited to have the honour of playing for them. Hopefully I can do great things here,” Yedlin said.

“I’m excited to learn under Rafa Benítez as well. He has an amazing résumé and I know he will help improve me a lot.”

“I can’t wait to get started.”

After learning under one defensive-minded manager in Sam Allardyce, Yedlin will have another in Rafa Benítez. An adjustment is to be expected, but something that shouldn’t be too difficult.

The American defender has made big strides since arriving in England last January. And it’s why the Spanish manager targeted Yedlin to begin with. He’s getting better.

Related Story: Tottenham: Yedlin Close to Joining Newcastle

“We have known for a little while of Watford’s interest in Daryl Janmaat, so it was important for us to bring in a replacement immediately,” Benítez said.

“In DeAndre we have a player who knows English football well. He has good experience, an attacking mentality, ability and great pace.”

“I think he can do really well for us and will give us good competition on the right.”

The loss of the 23-year-old can be looked at in two different ways.

It wasn’t a loss to begin with as Kieran Trippier’s arrival last summer made DeAndre Yedlin become surplus to requirements.

At the same time, after returning from a season-long loan with Sunderland, Yedlin would have been a good player to use in cup competitions while Trippier and Kyle Walker rotated between the Champions and Premier League.

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Selling a still-developing defender who can provide some good depth and act as a wing-back might hurt Spurs down the road.

Like Benítez said, DeAndre Yedlin has experience, pace, ability, an attacking mentality and most importantly, he provides good competition.

This is something that Mauricio Pochettino shouldn’t be selling so easily.

While Daniel Levy can get a good profit with these sales, not to necessarily balance out the books, it makes a weak bench even weaker.

Although Walker (26) and Trippier (25) are slightly older, Kyle Walker is only two seasons removed after he suffered a major injury to end the 2014-15 campaign.

Despite having a very good season last year, Walker still lacks concentration at times. But more so, he hasn’t exactly removed the injury prone label off of him just yet.

All players get injured, but should Walker go down once again, who backs up Trippier? Kyle Walker-Peters? Eric Dier? Or a new signing?

DeAndre Yedlin would have been a good option in this situation even if he only has 24 games of Premier League experience in his career.

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One thing that has shaped this roster, is how Mauricio Pochettino quickly identifies if a player fits into his system: skill wise and tactics wise.

It’s unknown how DeAndre Yedlin couldn’t fit in, even if he was the third-choice right-back.

Depth has always been an issue during Pochettino’s tenure, whether it’s a lack of quality players on the bench or not having enough players at certain positions.

Right now there’s a good chance that Tottenham would lose more players this season and next through sales, and not replace a majority of them.

Heading into September with Champions League around the corner, Spurs’ bench will once again be a major weakness if any more talented players are sold this summer.