Thomas Frank had said Tottenham would be active on transfer deadline day but nothing came to pass for the beleaguered Dane on Monday
The main aim of a club in a transfer window is to end it with a stronger squad than they began it with. Tottenham Hotspur cannot say that after their winter exploits.
Back in December, long before the window opened, football.london reported that Spurs were looking for a whole new left side with a left winger and a left-back, an upgrade in central midfield and were willing to sell Brennan Johnson and Radu Dragusin - and if the latter left then they would pursue a new centre-back. Likewise a striker would be signed if any of the front line departed.
In keeping with all of that, Tottenham bought that new left-back in £13million Souza, a 19-year-old from Santos. They bought an upgrade in midfield in Conor Gallagher for £34.6million from Atletico Madrid. They did indeed sell last season's top scorer Johnson to Crystal Palace for £35million and with Dragusin staying put, so there was no new central defender. Solanke's return and a quartet of players able to play up top meant no move for a striker.
The glaring absence was that left winger as Spurs could not get it done. In a press conference last week Thomas Frank admitted there was an ambitious but ultimately failed move for Antoine Semenyo, who decided that his chances of winning things at Manchester City were just that little bit higher.
Tottenham looked at alternatives and Frank even admitted that loan moves were an option, but the club just could not get a deal done for a winger that they felt improved the squad. The decision was made that if they could not get the players they wanted then they would wait until the summer.
That meant in essence that the club spent £13million in the transfer window, with the Gallagher and Johnson deals cancelling each other out financially.
On January 17, Spurs CEO Vinai Venkatesham wrote in a message to the fanbase: "We believe in our current squad, but must add more quality, experience, and leadership to compete consistently at the highest level. Doing so requires a more proactive approach to recruitment, alongside a wage structure that supports our ambition.
"We are fully focused on strengthening the squad in January where the right opportunities exist, while recognising that the most significant player trading activity typically comes in summer windows. Our priority is to make signings that genuinely move us forward, and we will be disciplined against that aim."
Tottenham could not find those opportunities. They did not make a single first team signing beyond the teenage Souza after that message was published in the matchday programme and on the club website.
The club had a deal agreed in principle with Liverpool for another left-back, albeit an experienced one, in Scotland captain Andy Robertson but it was dependent on Liverpool recalling Kostas Tsimikas from Roma, which did not happen.
"We are active, no doubt about that. If something happens, let's see," said Frank on Sunday night of Tottenham's deadline day plans.
Nothing came off for Spurs on deadline day. Ultimately they were not successfully active. Amid a flood of young players being sent out on loan from the club, the only arrival was James Wilson, an 18-year-old Hearts striker brought in on loan for the U21s with an option to buy him permanently. A deal sheet was submitted to the Premier League for Wilson, who is represented by the same agency as Robertson.
One can only wonder what the big fuss was about keeping sporting director Fabio Paratici until the end of the window before the Italian was allowed to return home and join Fiorentina when Spurs signed nobody from that point on. Fiorentina, in case you were wondering, signed five players including Tottenham's Manor Solomon.
With Johan Lange as well, Tottenham had two sporting directors in the transfer window and were still unable to sign more than one of those senior, experienced players they wanted for their squad. There was not a single deal in the market that would have benefitted Frank. There were plenty of cooks in the kitchen but very little came out of the oven.
The club's January window, with the difficulties in the winter market, might have been explainable and even two signings praised had the squad been in a good way with plenty of options for Frank to call upon, particularly in attack.
However, this is certainly not the case as Tottenham's squad is as much of a mess as it was a year ago. Frank has 11 injured players unavailable to him and nine of them got injured in January alone. He lost Rodrigo Bentancur, Mohammed Kudus, Lucas Bergvall and Ben Davies to long-term injuries and Richarlison for a couple of months along with more medium term injuries for Pedro Porro, Djed Spence and now Kevin Danso as well as a shorter-term one for Micky van de Ven.
In keeping with Spurs' fortunes, Kudus was ruled out for three months just days after Johnson was told he was surplus to requirements at the club and selling him to Palace.
The north London club will point to that large mass of injured players and the problems that adding more numbers to that squad will only cause in the months ahead as players come through the door.
The problem with that line of thinking is that two months is a long time in football and it's assuming Tottenham won't run into more injuries and big problems in the Premier League as their squad numbers drop. The club's Champions League last 16 match against Juventus, Atletico Madrid, Galatasaray or Club Brugge comes before the long-termers will be back.
Frank admitted to football.london when we asked on Friday if the squad was weaker than when the window opened: "I think that's fair. We lost six or seven players inside three weeks in January. That's crazy, and some of them extremely unlucky, definitely Lucas and Ben with clear contact injuries. There were definitely too many. So yeah, of course it's weaker than we started with on the first of January."
Ultimately it has been another transfer window of public misses, as it was in the summer when they missed out on Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze. Frank had also wanted his former Brentford players Bryan Mbeumo and Christian Norgaard but both were set on moves to Manchester United and Arsenal respectively by that point.
Whatever reactionary plans Tottenham drew up for this winter window to help Frank as the injuries hit failed to come to pass. He must now face what comes next in the same way Ange Postecoglou did last season at this point. He might be mindful that the Spurs hierarchy were said to be unimpressed when the former Celtic boss made it clear that with his small injury-hit squad he would have to prioritise the Europa League.
The hierarchy has changed at the club but the fans are yet to see a winter window difference from the Daniel Levy era. The Lewis family injected £100million into the club in October last year but the supporters are pointing to a first window under the new regime that has seen a net spend of £13million.
It's all very well pointing to what you tried to do but this is a club that Rivaldo once sent a lovely letter to explaining why he wasn't going to join them. Failing to do what you set out to do is still ultimately failing to do it, however exciting the possibility might have been.
The pressure now falls back on Frank to make something out of the hand he has been dealt. The club made a big thing after sacking Postecoglou about wanting to compete on all fronts. Very little done on the surface since has helped that become achievable. It's a club that always seems to be looking to the future and the long term and perhaps forgetting to look straight in front at the present.
In keeping with the winter theme, it's a club that gives the impression of planning for sunny days rather than rainy ones.
Pity poor Archie Gray. The teenage midfielder spent much of last season at this point playing as a centre-back for the first time in his career to fill the gaps in the Tottenham squad and now he will spend the coming weeks as a right-back amid this year's latest edition of the Spurs injury crisis.
Spurs captain Cristian Romero posted on Instagram on Monday after the transfer window shut: "Great effort from all my teammates yesterday, they were incredible. I wanted to be available to help them even though I wasn’t feeling well, especially since we only had 11 players available - unbelievable but true and disgraceful.
"We’ll keep showing up and taking responsibility to turn this around, working hard and staying together. All that’s left is to thank all of you for being there and for always supporting us, the fans."
Most clubs push on after winning a trophy, Tottenham Hotspur have stood still. For their sake, after a transfer window that did little to help them, they will have to hope Frank's weakened and vulnerable team doesn't slide down the table much further, otherwise the club will pay a costly price. Either way it's going to need to be one hell of a summer.