Tottenham Hotspur are one of two teams without a Premier League goal this season. Four matches in, only Spurs and promoted Coventry City are still goalless.
It's the worst-ever start to a Spurs season in goalscoring terms but they have at least conceded half as many as the Sky Blues. New signing Jan Paul van Hecke is one of the reasons the major problem appears to be at the attacking end of the pitch.
The transfer of Van Hecke from Brighton & Hove Albion was a big investment in a proven Premier League central defender but it came with a catch, and not in hindsight.
Van Hecke and Vuskovic 'swap' will be profitable for Brighton on and off the pitch
Elite football's regulatory environment now incentivises player trading. Selling and buying, in combination, are broadly more compliant than keeping. Clubs twist that might otherwise be motivated to stick.
Players swapping between the same two clubs in the same window is becoming increasingly common but the same regulations make it clear that dealing them independently rather than as swaps is usually the way to go.
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The spreadsheet rules all, and these de facto swap deals are happening more frequently than true swaps ever did. The transfer fees are for accountants. It's the players and the difference between their values that mean something.
Van Hecke's move to Spurs was officially unconnected to 19-year-old Luka Vuskovic going the other way but the deals will always be linked in the minds of Spurs supporters. They might come to view them with regret.
The young Croatian never played a first team game for Spurs before joining Brighton for a reported fee in the region of £46 million. Van Hecke, the older and more expensive of the pair, has been overshadowed by his successor in the early part of the season.
Vuskovic looks like a genuine talent, with all the technical ability, physicality and intelligence to succeed at the highest levels of the game.
He's dominant in the air and a major factor at set pieces in both boxes, and Fabian Hurzeler has been able to lean on him and Lewis Dunk in what's become a very fine start to the season.
Brighton's business model suggests that a player of Vuskovic's prodigious talent will eventually be sold on again for an even greater fee. Van Hecke himself is evidence of that.
For Spurs, the sale of Vuskovic marked the exit of a white-hot prospect who they wanted enough to sign three years ago but only had ownership of for a year before shuffling him off in exchange for a more established player.
Down the road, a cornerstone of Arsenal's 2025/26 Premier League title win was signed all the way back in 2019, and sent on three loans - the same number as Vuskovic - before working his way into the Gunners' starting lineup.
William Saliba may be injured currently but his 184 appearances for Arsenal over the past four seasons are testament to long-term squad planning and a club being able to see the bigger picture.
The worry from a Spurs point of view is that Vuskovic, potentially, could have been a short-term win too. Watching him continue to develop could make for difficult viewing.
