IT took just 18 minutes for Antonin Kinsky to show off the fancy footwork Spurs have sorely missed from their goalkeeper in the last six weeks.
The confident Czech, signed on Sunday from Slavia Prague, performed a clever keepy-uppy to get himself out of the danger he had been put in by team-mate Radu Dragusin.
Romanian Dragusin had let a dangerous ball bounce, but instead of panicking, Kinsky cleverly lifted the ball over an advancing Diogo Jota and caught it.
It was a promising snapshot of his ball-playing ability which was on show here throughout his debut.
And one that will have come as a big relief to fans who have watched from behind their sofa as poor old Fraser Forster has attempted to play AngeBall in Guglielmo Vicario’s absence.
Kinsky’s former Slavia team-mates sat down to watch his Spurs bow while on a warm-weather training camp in Marbella, with the club’s X account hailing their ‘King’.
https://twitter.com/slaviaofficial/status/1877093600598659237Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has decided to persevere with playing out from the back ever since No1 Vicario fractured his ankle in November.
And though Forster has made some good saves in the meantime, playing smart, short passes under pressure is not his strong suit.
That was made abundantly clear when the 36-year-old made not just one but TWO horrendous errors that led to goals in the last round of the Carabao Cup last month, which Spurs just about won 4-3 against Manchester United, despite leading 3-0 at one point.
With Vicario not expected back until late February, Spurs decided to act and brought in 21-year-old Kinsky this month for £12.5million on a six-and-a-half-year deal.
His agent Viktor Kolar revealed how tough the negotiations were to get the deal over the line in an interview with Flashscore.
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It included how chairman Daniel Levy himself flew over to Prague to get things moving alongside Spurs’ technical director Johan Lange.
Kolar said: “Our team was still sitting at a petrol station in Prague until almost 10 pm of December 31, because everything was closed on New Year’s Eve.
“The subsequent development was that on January 1, Daniel Levy flew in himself and the two-day negotiations in Prague began. He had Johan Lange with him.
“The negotiations were intense, stretching late into the night.
“But it worked, and I’m happy about that. It was a beautiful test to see if people and organizations this dominant can find their way to each other.”
Kolar also detailed how his client chatted the move over with Czech goalkeeping great Petr Cech before signing on the dotted line.
Kinsky then went on to become the most expensive Czech keeper ever, with his £12.5m deal surpassing the £10m Arsenal paid Chelsea for Cech in 2015.
Kolar added: “Toni can consult on things with Petr, and talk about the goalkeeping stuff.”
Kinsky was thrown straight in here against high-flying Liverpool for what was a pivotal match in Spurs’ season – and Postecoglou’s tenure.
The blond stopper looked cool throughout his bow – and not just in his short-sleeved keeper top.
His presence seemed to calm down an injury-hit defence which has seemed jittery of late too, with some accurate passes and solid saves.
There was one hairy moment soon after his keepy-uppy where he tried to play out from back and his pass hit Archie Gray but he got away with it.
But for the most part Kinsky seemed assured, summed up by how he smartly started the move which led to Dominic Solanke sliding Spurs ahead – only to be ruled out for offside.
Solanke shrugged off the disappointment by teeing up another blond bombshell in Spurs’ team, Lucas Bergvall, for an opener that did stand – much to Kinsky and his new team-mates’ delight.
Kinsky then produced his save of the night to turn an inventive flick from Liverpool sub Darwin Nunez round the post in stoppage time.
Postecoglou had said it was not just his footwork that convinced Spurs to sign the youngster – and so this stop proved.
Kinsky completed his debut with a warm embrace from his sister, who looked emotional in the stands next to supporters.
It is early days, but on this evidence Spurs fans can be confident that their new man between the sticks has what it takes to play the high-risk football their manager insists on.
