In recent years, we have seen a spike in English players going to play their football overseas. When players like David Beckham went off to play in Europe, whilst he was not the first player to do so, he was seen as more of an exception than a rule.
In the last ten years, we have seen a number of England national team players play abroad, including; Jadon Sancho, Fikayo Tomori, Kieran Trippier, Jude Bellingham, Conor Gallagher, Angel Gomes, and wouldn’t we all know, Harry Kane – amongst others.
This trend has filtered down into the lower leagues, too. One of those players is Archie Brown. Having come through the academy at Derby County, Brown joined Swiss side Lausanne-Sport in 2021, and in 2023 joined Belgian Pro League side Gent.
Spurs interested in Archie Brown from Belgian Pro League
A left-back, Brown has impressed with his displays in Belgium, and they have not gone unnoticed. TBR Football have reported that Spurs, West Ham United, and Chelsea, are all interested in his services.
The 22-year old has played 1163 minutes in the Belgian Pro League so far this campaign, and came up against on loan Spurs defender Luka Vuskovic back in August when Gent hosted KVC Westerlo, with Brown’s side coming out as 4-1 winners. Alfie Devine, another example of an English player abroad, was still at Spurs at the time.
In terms of recruitment, Brown would be yet another young defender on the books at Spurs. Destiny Udogie is still just 22, and Micky van de Ven is 23. There is also of course Vuskovic himself, who is 17, and 19-year old Ashley Phillips, currently on loan at Stoke City.
Elsewhere, Radu Dragusin is also 22, whilst even the more experienced defenders, Cristian Romero and Pedro Porro, are still 26 and 25 respectively. Djed Spence is still 24, whilst Ben Davies at 31 is the clear outlier when it comes to the backline.
Whilst you can make cases that Spurs do need more experience, they have been criticised in the past for failing to take advantage and swoop up young talents, so it would be harsh to say they shouldn’t try and go for another young player here.
At the moment, Brown has two and a half years remaining on his existing Gent contract, so by next summer, when you consider the discrepancy between the two leagues as well, a deal could be quite feasible. Of course, that logic does count for West Ham and Chelsea too, so we will see.