Telegraph: Southampton to demand staggering price for Tyler Dibling

03/26/2025 10:30 AM

This is essentially a "go away" message to potential suitors.

It's no secret that Southampton's teenage midfielder Tyler Dibling is of interest to Tottenham Hotspur. He's young, talented with a high ceiling, and on a team that's almost certain to be relegated this season (Soton are currently bottom of the table with just nine points).

That's put Tyler "Dribbling" on the radars of any number of top Premier League clubs, including Spurs, and with Tottenham seemingly trying to hoover up whatever young talent is available after Chelsea get done doing whatever it is they're doing, he'd fit in very well with the likes of Archie Gray, Lucas Bergvall, and Mikey Moore.

But Southampton isn't going to let the crown jewel of their academy go easily. According to John Percy and Matt Law in the Telegraph, Soton are likely to demand in excess of £100m to let Dibling go. Dibling is also being scouted by both Manchester clubs, Bayern Munich, and RB Leipzig.

£100m. That's a lot of £. Is Tyler "Dribbling" worth a transfer fee that's in the same category as a teenage Jude Bellingham, Joao Felix, and Kylian Mbappe? I mean, we can have that discussion but based on his current output I'd say probably not, at least now. His potential is huge, but he hasn't realized it yet. So what gives?

The most likely answer is that Dibling doesn't have a relegation clause in his current Southampton contract, which would make sense since he's 19 and signed his current pro contract two years ago. That also suggests that Southampton are holding all the cards here and are likely to want to keep him next season in the Championship, unless they can get a big club to spend stupid money. If they can leverage another year of Dibling to help them get back to the Premier League in 2026-27, they could then sell Dibling for potentially crazy money and finance a transfer window that might help they stay up in the future.

I think it's pretty unlikely that any interested club, Spurs or otherwise, would offer £100m for Dibling this summer. I do think he could command a pretty good transfer fee, and it'll be up to Southampton at that point to decide if it's worth selling him. The £100m fee is almost certainly posturing, and setting a benchmark that's unlikely to be reached, but it's also an indicator that Southampton isn't going to meekly play ball. Get ready for another annoying summer of transfer rumors.