While their campaign didn't get off to the best of starts on Monday night, Tottenham Hotspur have a massive season ahead of them in the Premier League this year.
Ange Postecoglou is no longer the new guy, and there is an expectation that after a busy summer in which the club have spent well over £100m on new players, he'll lead them back into the Champions League.
However, while Daniel Levy and Co have already splashed the cash this year, recent reports have touted even more players for a move to N17, including one who's won comparisons to Manchester United new boy Matthijs de Ligt, although he could spell trouble for Destiny Udogie.
Tottenham Hotspur transfer news
According to a recent report from Spain, Tottenham are one of several clubs interested in signing Bayer Leverkusen defender Piero Hincapie.
The report claims that, alongside the Lilywhites, Liverpool and Atlético Madrid are incredibly keen to land the versatile 22-year-old this summer, meaning a bidding war could soon erupt.
The story does not mention a potential price, but separate reports from earlier this month revealed that a fee of around £50m could tempt the German champions into selling.
It would be a complicated and costly transfer to get done, but given Hincapie's form last season, positional versatility, and comparisons to De Ligt, it is one well worth making, although Udogie might not welcome it.
How Hincapie compares to De Ligt and why he could challenge Udogie
Okay, so before we look at how Hincapie could compete with Udogie for a place in the starting lineup at Spurs, let's examine this comparison to De Ligt and where it comes from.
It primarily stems from FBref, which compared all centre-backs in the Bundesliga last season, created a list of the ten most similar players for each one, and concluded that the Dutchman was the fifth most similar centre-back to the Leverkusen ace in the league.
You can see their similarities in how closely they rank for specific underlying metrics, including but not limited to non-penalty expected goals plus assists, progressive passes, shots on target, passing accuracy and ball recoveries, all per 90.
A ball recovery is defined by the number of loose balls recovered by a player.
So, it's clear then from his comparison to United's new defensive stalwart that, as a centre-back, the "tenacious" 22-year-old star, as dubbed by talent scout Jacek Kulig, is immensely gifted, but that is not the reason he's going to threaten Udogie's place in the team, the reason he could do that is the fact that he's an accomplished full-back as well.
Throughout his career, he has started 89 games at centre-back, 39 at left-back, and another 12 in left midfield, which should help him feel more at home attacking from the full-back position.
It's not just at club level where the "future legend", as dubbed by Kulig, has played there either, as he started there for all four of Ecuador's games at the Copa América this year and even picked up a freak assist in the team's 3-1 win over Jamaica in the group stage.
It's this quality experience at playing at left-back that could see the Esmeraldas-born gem really challenge the Lilywhites' talented Italian prospect because, as things stand, he doesn't have any genuine competition in the squad, which isn't ideal for fostering a competitive spirit within the team.
Ultimately, Udogie proved that he's one of the most exciting young full-backs in the Premier League last season, but players need competition to thrive, and based on his performances over the last few years, Hincapie could be that competition - the comparison to De Ligt is just a nice bonus.