Apparently I’m alone in thinking that Spurs have had a thoroughly decent window. Nobody seems overly disgusted but there seems to be an air of being underwhelmed, a sentiment which I do not share.
Since about 2005 Spurs seem to have implemented a general transfer strategy involving the purchase of promising youth and to be fair have a very good record of turning youth into functional top tier professionals.
Obviously not everybody has been a success (Reto Ziegler anyone?) but on the whole the club has become a regular in the top six and still has the money to buy players.
Last season we all remember what happened but what people seem to forget is that the people who said last season was a disaster were the very same people who were urging people to be patient.
That window was the first time we really broke from the established transfer strategy and splurged on expensive attackers (still mostly young though.)
On a side note does anybody think Harry Redknapp’s insistence on buying established old professionals might be why Daniel Levy wasn’t willing to back him going forward?
The problem with having this strategy is that it very rarely led to specific purchases designed to fix holes in the squad.
For the last ten years there has always been a glaring hole in our squad, if not team. How long have we been crying out for a left-back?
The perfect example of this is our dearly departed Lewis Holtby. Useful player, likeable and fits the bill with our strategy – but did we really need another CM at that point?
This is the first window where the balance of the squad seems to have been truly addressed. We needed a left-back, we spent on what I believe to be a very good one in Ben Davies.
We needed a backup keeper – voila, Michel Vorm. We needed centre-backs who didn’t have to be accompanied by a warning klaxon when turning (sorry Daws) – we got Sevilla’s captain.
We needed to trim the numbers at central midfield (goodbye Holtby, Jake Livermore and Sandro) and replace them with less players but ones that were more suited to the system. Try and find anyone with a bad word to say about Benjamin Stambouli.
Add to that Eric Dier, who could not possibly have had a better start at Spurs, and in DeAndre Yedlin the one right-back in the world who may actually be quicker than Kyle Walker, and suddenly we have depth in all areas.
From here we can look to simply upgrade in quality rather than fix glaring holes. How many times last season did the whole team suffer because people were playing out of position to cover for absentees? I might be the only person who hated seeing Jan Vertonghen at left-back more than the man himself.
Is the squad finished? Of course not, because Mauricio Pochettino has been here five minutes. But this window is proof that the management are implementing a playing style and building a balanced squad fit to implement it.
At Spurs, that is the pretty much the best we can hope for.