Tottenham confirm Oliver Skipp sale to Leicester hours before opening Premier League clash

Evening Standard

·19 August 2024

Tottenham confirm Oliver Skipp sale to Leicester hours before opening Premier League clash

Spurs academy graduate is not eligible to face his former club in a swift reunion on Monday evening

Leicester have confirmed the signing of Oliver Skipp just hours before facing Tottenham in their Premier League opener on Monday night.

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Skipp has now officially swapped north London for the King Power Stadium in a deal worth an initial £20million plus a further £5m in add-ons after successfully passing a medical.

The 23-year-old has penned a five-year contract with Leicester until the summer of 2029, but has not signed in time to immediately face his former club in a swift reunion on Monday evening.

Instead, Skipp will hope to make his debut for Steve Cooper’s newly-promoted Foxes when they travel to face Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon.

But Leicester did confirm that the player would be in attendance at the King Power for the game against Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham.

“I’m really excited to sign,” Skipp told Leicester’s official website. “I’ve got the feeling that it’s a good group of people and a good group of players.

“I’m sure that we’ve got a squad capable of challenging in every game. You look around the squad and there’s lots of exciting players who have played in the Premier League and I’m really excited to see what this group can achieve.

“I had conversations with the people here and they gave me a feeling of warmth and that they were excited to have me on board.

“As a player, when you feel that excitement, that’s something you can use to develop your game. The staff here know me as well - Steve [Cooper], I have worked with at England so there’s definitely a good relationship there and I’m keen to push on and show what I can do.”

Skipp joined Tottenham at the age of five and graduated through the club’s youth system, making his senior debut in October 2018 and going on to make 106 total appearances across all competitions either side of a season-long loan spell at Norwich in 2020/21.

His only goal for Spurs came in the 2-0 home win over London rivals Chelsea in the Premier League back in February 2023.

The bulk of Skipp’s appearances during Postecoglou’s first season in charge last term came as a substitute and Tottenham are now content to move on.

Standard Sport understands that a new No6 is not believed to be a priority for the club in the final stages of the summer transfer window, largely due to the impressive performances of teenage arrivals Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall during pre-season.

Moving on: Oliver Skipp made more than 100 appearances for Tottenham after coming through the youth system

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Tottenham also have the likes of Yves Bissouma, James Maddison, Rodrigo Bentancur, Pape Matar Sarr and Giovani Lo Celso as senior midfield options at present, having allowed Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg to join Marseille on an initial loan deal earlier this summer.

Skipp joins a Leicester side that won the Championship title last season to bounce back to the Premier League at the first time of asking following their shock relegation in 2022/23, later appointing former Nottingham Forest boss Cooper after losing Enzo Maresca to Chelsea after only one season in charge.

He joins the likes of Bobby De Cordova-Reid, Facundo Buonanotte, Issahaku Fatawu, Caleb Okoli and Michael Golding in being recruited by Leicester since their promotion and will help to fill the midfield void left by Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s £30m departure to join Maresca at Chelsea.

Skipp previously worked with Cooper in the England youth set-up and was part of the Young Lions side that won the European Under-21 Championship for the first time in 39 years in Georgia last summer.