The deadline has passed and Tottenham have not completed a single signing. They are not believed to be responsible for any of the ten deal sheets handed into the Premier League. They will head into the new league season without any new faces.
Good Summer For Tottenham Despite Lack of Signings
Rating: 7/10
Ok, let me explain. As has been widely publicised in the last month or so, Spurs have not signed a player. They left it late to make a bid for Jack Grealish and ended up missing out on the 22-year old midfielder.
Lewis Cook, Anthony Martial, Wilfried Zaha and many more players were linked with the club but there were no other bids made by Daniel Levy. It has been a disappointing summer for Spurs fans, but it will soon be forgotten.
Not signing players isn’t something that is going to make Spurs worse. It just won’t see them become better. They are still the same squad that finished in the top three in each of the last three seasons, minus Kyle Walker from the first two seasons.
It is massive that they have held onto their big players, and Pochettino knows that.
New Contracts
Perhaps in an effort to distract from the lack of transfer activity, Spurs announced a series of new contract signings throughout the summer.
Harry Kane signed a new six-year deal, while Davinson Sanchez, Heung-min Son, Erik Lamela, Harry Winks, Kyle Walker-Peters and Cameron Carter-Vickers also put pen-to-paper on new deals. Critically, Mauricio Pochettino also committed his future to the club amid interest from Real Madrid.
The Alderweireld Saga
From day one of this window, we knew that Manchester United wanted to sign Toby Alderweireld. They were willing to pay £50m for the Belgian, but Tottenham held out for £60m. Eventually, United’s interest relaxed and Spurs held on to their skilled centre-back.
Despite the fact the Alderweireld reportedly wanted the move to Manchester, it is a big step for Spurs that they managed to hold on to him. Their fans have been angered in the past by the club’s willingness to sell to their top four rivals. But not this time, Daniel Levy made sure of that.
Pochettino’s Reaction
Speaking on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s Premier League opener at Newcastle, Pochettino remained very calm about the whole situation. He admitted that new signings would be ideal but he didn’t want to sign someone for the sake of it.
The Spurs boss wanted someone that would add something to the squad. Maybe Jack Grealish was the man that he identified as a suitable addition, but that is irrelevant now.
He said: “I am happy to keep all the squad together, there were many rumours during the summer about players out. The club made a massive effort to try and extend contracts of Harry Kane, just one example. The club is trying to finish the stadium as soon as possible. It is difficult to understand for people in football that Tottenham didn’t sign or didn’t sell players but sometimes in football, you need to behave differently. We are happy with our squad and we cannot improve our squad. It is better to keep our squad altogether, we believe a lot in our players.”
As a Spurs fan, I obviously wish we had gotten the Grealish deal over the line. I was hoping for a late swoop for Martial. I would have settled for a decent midfield backup in Lewis Cook. But it wasn’t to be. However, I won’t lose any sleep over it.
There is only one thing left to say – In Poch We Trust.
Main Image Credit:
Embed from Getty Images