It's set to be a massive campaign for Tottenham Hotspur next season as Ange Postecoglou looks to lead his squad up the Premier League table and back into the Champions League.
The Australian enjoyed a relatively successful debut year with the club, but he'll need his team's stars, such as James Maddison, to step it up a level in 2024/25.
Fortunately, Daniel Levy and Co appear to be doing their job to help the manager, as based on recent reports, the club are focussing their efforts on signing an incredibly exciting talent who's won comparisons to Maddison and could make a real difference in North London.
Tottenham Hotspur transfer news
According to journalist Alex Crook on talkSPORT's latest episode of the Premier League All-Access Podcast, Tottenham's interest in Eberechi Eze remains high and is "more advanced" than that of their competition.
Alongside the Lilywhites, Crook claims that Manchester City are fans of the Englishman.
However, their interest depends on what happens with Kevin De Bruyne in the coming weeks, and while the North Londoners want to "shift some players first," their desire to sign the midfielder is "genuine."
It's widely reported that the Palace ace would cost Spurs about £60m due to a release clause in his contract. While that is a lot of money, it would be money well spent - especially given his comparisons to Maddison.
Why Eze would be a great signing and his comparison to Maddison
Before getting into why Eze would be an excellent signing for Spurs, let's address the comparisons to Maddison, which stem mainly from FBref.
They compared every player in the 2022/23 Premier League season, created a list of the ten most comparable players for each one, and, in turn, concluded that the Spurs ace was the most similar midfielder to the Palace man across that whole campaign.
However, this wasn't done purely on the eye test or through the number of goal contributions they produced. Instead, they looked at how closely the pair measured up to one another for a multitude of underlying metrics, including non-penalty expected goals, actual non-penalty goals, shots on target, live passes, goal-creating actions, tackles won and interceptions, all per 90.
Now, while the comparisons to Maddison are certainly a nice bonus when it comes to the Eagles ace, they shouldn't be the main reason behind his potential signing, as he proved last season that he was among the most dangerous players in the league.
For example, in just 31 appearances last season, the 26-year-old "entertainer," as data analyst Ben Mattinson dubbed him, scored 11 goals and provided six assists, meaning he averaged a goal involvement every 1.8 games, which is even more impressive considering he did that for a team that finished in midtable.
Ultimately, while signing Eze will take a lot of money and hard work from Levy and Co, it would be well worth it, as he could reach another level entirely playing under a manager like Postecoglou and alongside a teammate like Maddison.