Tottenham Hotspur confirm N’Koudou loan to Burnley

It’s done. Just hours after news leaked that Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Georges-Kevin N’Koudou was in negotiations to join Premier League surprise team Burnley on loan for the rest of the season, it was confirmed by the club via Twitter and its official web page.

The news was broken by L’Equipe last night, and suggested that there is NOT a purchase clause in the loan agreement. This suggests to me, upon further reflection, a couple of things.

1. This loan will allow N’Koudou, who is very much a fringe player this season, to hopefully get some valuable Premier League minutes under a respected manager. If the reports about a lack of a purchase clause are true, that implies that Spurs aren’t ready to cut bait on him -- they just want to give him some experience. Earlier this season Mauricio Pochettino told the press that N’Koudou was “a good kid” but that he hadn’t quite figured out yet what it takes to make it at the Premier League level.
2. Perhaps more importantly, this loan frees up a Champions League roster spot for the now-healthy Erik Lamela. Thanks to Ben Davies and Eric Dier stupidly not being counted as a “locally trained players” by UEFA, Spurs were short-handed. Lamela wasn’t included in the squad because he was injured, but he’ll definitely be an option against Juventus and farther, should they win. By loaning out GKN, that makes room for Erik.

It will be very interesting to see how N’Koudou is integrated into Dyche’s Burnley squad. I’m told by Burnley fans on Twitter that thanks to the injury to Robbie Brady, Burnley could use a fast, direct winger like GKN. He’s also young enough that he could really use an opportunity to get regular minutes at the Premier League level. Hopefully he gets some.

Good luck, Georges-Kevin!