I have been rubbish about writing a blog for months really and now two in less than seven days. I know… better when I stopped I hear you say. Well, too bad, I am back and I am writing. Today is all about the transfer window that closed yesterday. It slammed shut at 11pm Monday 31st January 2022. So here is our business in short.
Incoming:
- Rodrigo Bentancur
- Dejan Kulusevski
Outgoing:
- Dele Alli (Sold to Everton for initial FREE but clauses built in. £10m after 20 games, £10m after another set amount of games & up to an additional £20m based on performances and achievements)
- Tanguy Ndombele (loan with an option to buy in the summer)
- Giovani Lo Celso (loan with an option to buy in the summer)
- Bryan Gil (loan until the end of the season)
So with four players leaving and two coming in it does feel like we are leaving ourselves short for the rest of the season. I have said for some windows now and its the same again we are a Harry Kane injury away from having no recognised striker at the club BUT I will say on this occasion you could look at this in a more positive way. It is not simply about players in terms of numbers of them but what they bring to the side.
Under Antonio Conte Dele has started one Premier League game. Tanguy Ndombele also one with Lo Celso and Bryan not getting any starts. The combined minutes played by the four across the Premier League is the lowest of any recognised first team player. So, for probably the first time in my memory mid season we have given the manager what he wanted and that was to clear out the players he was not interested in having in his squad.
That in a way is ‘backing the manager’ as so many fans have called Daniel Levy to do. The financial aspect of letting these players go has even surprised me and many. Dele on a free. Now granted that deal has been structure so in essence it is a loan deal, but Everton could not loan anymore players domestically, but still it does not feel a very Levy thing to do – but perhaps this is the influence of Paratici? These players were not playing, were not going to be playing and the manager wanted them gone.
Tanguy and Lo Celso of course, should they fail to find form back in France and Spain respectively, could be a problem again come the summer but there is a real belief that they are as good as sold now with Lyon and Villareal two clubs who are keen to have them beyond the initial loans.
The Bryan Gil loan is one I am not fully understanding however if I am honest and this is why. The young man has moved to England, we can all accept living in Spain compared to England is very different in terms of environment, culture… the weather! He is also learning the language and how football here is played so on what planet does it make sense to loan him back to Spain? I find it hard to believe that was the only loan option available to him.
There were reports in the press that he was unsettled, homesick and the club are arranging this loan in the hope that helps him and then will reassess in the summer however the player himself shot down those reports via Twitter where he replied to them calling them out.
So this loan feels less about helping the young lad develop and adjust to the English game and more about simply protecting his value, getting games and looking good again. It will be interesting to see what happens in the summer as clearly Conte is yet to be convinced by him and with us looking at players of Adama Traore’s build in this window and signing the much larger Kulusevski it is perhaps already over for young Bryan at Spurs. Time will tell.
So the two players we have brought in compared to the four departing could actually work out. My point is if the manager did not trust the four, would not give them minutes whereas the two can come in, do well etc then its been good business.
However I do think any transfer window for Tottenham needs to be assessed based not on who came and who left but also seeing squad building / transfer strategy. The reason I say that is for to long it has felt, to me anyway, that we have no idea what we are doing… we seem to go from window to window looking for deals, looking for high profile players we can get and then settling normally for just who is available when we fail to meet the financial demands of that top tier eye catching talent.
As an exercise me and a friend recently, a fellow Spurs fan, tried to put together a “Nearly Signed 11” for Spurs. These are not just players we have been linked with, as we could do a full three teams and subs with that, this is an 11 of players that the media and even the club and in many cases former managers have told us we nearly signed. Here is our effort:
As you can see we failed on a goalkeeper and its a make shift left back really however yeah, those are all players that at one point Tottenham were heavily linked too and “almost signed” but one thing or another got in the way. Now I have read books written by AVB, Harry Redknapp, Glenn Hoddle and Pochettino all past managers (Poch was still in charge when his book was out, not his best decision in my opinion) and in addition to these books I have read countless columns and seen / heard interviews with Ramos and Jol. Everyone talks about Daniel Levy and transfer talks.
“Everything is a negotiation…” – Redknapp. “I got one well with him but everything took so long….” – Hoddle and I could go on but if you want to read about this the books are out there. The column inches are full. Every former manager wields an axe, of course, you can cut through that though and see a running theme and that is one of dithering with transfers. The club simply do not act with a plan or even if they do have a plan they dither and miss out.
You can of course add other players to that team above. James Maddison. Jack Grealish a famous one… or from this window Diaz can be added to the “we tried” and “nearly got him” category. You will note we never got a keeper… lets say we are playing rush backs… could not think of a keeper, anyone have one?
It started as a bit of fun putting that team together but by the end it was actually a little depressing. It opens a discussion around why this keeps happening and if lessons are ever learned when it comes to recruitment at the club.
I think everyone knows that our owner is not one to put money into the club to enable us to buy players. We also know that Daniel Levy is someone who likes to haggle and negotiate every last detail of every deal. What that means in real terms is that when buying players we do not have the ready capital to hand which our top six rivals have and we also take longer to conclude deals due to the sheer detail level of the negotiations.
With Paratici coming in my hope, and the hopes of many, were that Daniel would take a back seat in footballing matters (he did say that) and allow Paratici, with a budget to take over. In this window we have seen and heard that it has not happened. Sadly I fear Mr Levy is a control freak and is either unable or unwilling to let go of the transfer talks. Every press report of the failed Diaz signing cited Levy as the one involved. This should not be happening.
Fabio Paratic is not just the director of football at Tottenham, he is the director in charge for all footballing matters at the club. This is not just a fancy job title given to someone who handles recruitment, or at least, it was not sold to us that when he joined – it is supposed to signal he is in charge.
Of course it is very difficult to know fully from the outside looking in, we are left with the information available and the perception that gives. As I mentioned above the outgoings this window do not feel like Levy at all, so perhaps that is where the influence of Paratic can be seen.
So my conclusion really of this window is one of confusion. I am not sure we are better off than when it opened, however time will tell on the new signings. If they come in and raise our level then you can say “what a window” as we all know the players who left certainly were not capable of doing, well not capable for doing it for Tottenham under Conte anyway.
The nagging feeling I have is that we are short. I hope I am wrong. However I have already seen Spurs fans online start to talk about how big the summer is going to be. Clearing out has happened and then the big signings are coming. I fear that could be to late. The reason I say that is looking at the league table right now, with games in hand and games against rivals to come the right signings in the right key areas of this team could have secured us a Champions League spot for next season – as I said I now fear we are short.
Luck is therefore going to play a big part. Luck with injuries. Sonny and Romero are coming back very soon and if we can avoid any more major injuries to our key players I think we have a real shot at top four. If Kane’s ankle goes, Romero and Dier continue to get recurring issues… then this end of the season could be a horror show.
-Admin SJ
