Arsenal, Spurs or Newcastle? 'The very poor man's Virgil van Dijk' a great €30m signing

Sam McGuire

• 21 Nov 2023 10:00 CST
• 5 min read

Radu Dragusin is catching the eye this season.

The 21-year-old centre-back is being courted by the likes of Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United according to reports in Italy, and the Genoa defender could be available for €30 million.

Dragusin has had an interesting career to date.

The 12-cap Romania international was signed by Juventus in 2018 from Regal Sport Bucuresti. At the time, he was linked with Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Atletico Madrid but it was the Serie A giants who made their move for him, securing the defender in a deal believed to be worth €250,000.

Andrea Pirlo called the young defender up to his senior squad during the 2020/21 campaign and he went on to make four appearances across multiple competitions. Dragusin then spent the 2021/22 season on loan in Serie A with Sampdoria and Salernitana. He made a total of 22 appearances across both loan spells before returning to Turin.

Following their relegation, Genoa moved to bring the centre-back in. Initially he arrived on loan but the deal included an option to buy. The versatile defender played a key role in their promotion and he’s been pivotal in their surprising start to the 2023/24 season. He even scored the winner against Verona in their last outing with those three points lifting the Rossoblu into 13th position in the Italian top-flight.

Rumoured to be on Milan’s radar, it is believed Genoa are going to find it difficult to keep Dragusin beyond this current campaign. In fact, he could well be on the move in January.

A switch to the Premier League might be a little premature at this stage of his career but is it really one he could pass up if one of Arsenal, Newcastle or Spurs come knocking? He would probably benefit from playing in a more front-footed team, so Arsenal or Spurs may benefit him most. He’s deceptively good on the ball and really aggressive as a defender. Putting him in a ball-dominant side could see him really flourish into a true behemoth in that position.

But Newcastle’s style would certainly play to his defensive strengths. Genoa are more Newcastle than Arsenal in terms of style.

He’s a brick wall at times and he would be able to really showcase his passing talents from deeper positions when setting up counter-attacks. So those interested make a lot of sense from a playing profile point of view. It suggests this isn’t just paper talk.

At 6ft3, he would be physically suited to the rigours of England too. The 21-year-old competes in four aerial battles per 90 and he’s coming out on top 67% of the time. If he was able to replicate these numbers in the Premier League, he’d be one of the more aerially dominant centre-backs in the league.

He has a long-term deal with Genoa until 2027 but for the right price, they would sell a player they paid just €5.5m for.

Dragusin isn’t yet the real deal. There are areas he needs to improve but this comes with age and experience. He is perhaps a little immature at times - his positioning can be too aggressive and he can look to force passes that just clearly aren’t on. It will get him and his team into trouble on occasion but you have to take the rough with the smooth with a player like him. After all, once he’s ironed these out, there is the potential there for him to develop into a top-tier centre-back.

Right now, he’s a very poor man’s Virgil van Dijk. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing though. A lot of centre-backs model their game on the Liverpool skipper. If Dragusin matures and starts to dominate space as well as he can dominate players, he will improve his all-round game and may even have his own aura in one-versus-one situations.

There are no guarantees in football but paying €30m for someone of Dragusin’s skillset seems like sensible business. Even if he fails to fulfil his potential, he’s young enough to be a handy squad player for the best part of a decade if required.