Exactly three months ago, Tottenham Hotspur won their first piece of silverware in 17 years. Beating Manchester United in the Europa League final, securing qualification for this season’s Champions League in the process, was supposed to transform the mood around the club and, for a brief time, it did.
After two games of the new campaign, everything feels fragile and tense, despite an encouraging performance in the UEFA Super Cup against Paris Saint-Germain and a 3-0 victory over Burnley.
Spurs have stumbled around in the transfer market and failed to build upon the momentum of their Europa League success. Missing out on Morgan Gibbs-White was disappointing, but Nottingham Forest dug their heels in, and it ended up being a messy situation. It looks as though their north London rivals Arsenal have pipped them to the signing of Eberechi Eze from Crystal Palace at the last minute. This feels much more inexcusable.
Eze grew up supporting Arsenal and spent five years in their academy before he was released at 13. Maybe he was always waiting to see if they would offer him an emotional return. Palace held off selling him because of their Europa Conference League qualifying tie against Frederikstad on Thursday. If Spurs had been bullish and offered more money, could Palace have been tempted into letting the England international leave earlier?
The difference between how Arsenal and Spurs operate in the transfer market has been laid bare. Dejan Kulusevski underwent surgery on his right kneecap in May and is not expected to return anytime soon. Spurs failed to sign Gibbs-White in the middle of July, and a couple of weeks later, James Maddison suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury on the final night of their pre-season tour in Hong Kong and South Korea. They have known for a long time that they desperately needed to sign a creative midfielder.
Kai Havertz came off the bench in Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over Manchester United on Sunday and, since then, has suffered a knee injury. Arsenal have acted decisively and ruthlessly to pivot to Eze after showing initial interest earlier in the summer. Spurs have come close but seem to have ultimately failed to finalise deals for two of the best players on the market. They did not act with any urgency after Maddison underwent surgery.
Spurs fans are enraged and it is easy to understand why. Last summer, after Ange Postecoglou led them to a fifth-place finish during his first season in charge, Dominic Solanke was the only new signing who immediately raised the quality of the starting XI. Wilson Odobert, Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall were, and still are, talented project players. Spurs sold several experienced members of the squad, including Oliver Skipp, Emerson Royal, Giovani Lo Celso and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and never replaced them. The squad was undercooked, and they struggled to cope with the demands of competing in the Premier League and the Europa League.
Now it feels like history is repeating itself with their new head coach, Thomas Frank. The 51-year-old is more adaptable than Postecoglou, and if Spurs fail to sign a No 10 before the window closes, he will find a temporary solution. Frank has echoed the claims of chairman Daniel Levy and new chief executive officer Vinai Venkatesham, who spent 14 years at Arsenal, that Spurs should be aiming to win the title in the future. How are they supposed to progress when their squad is only marginally better than the one which finished 17th last season? It is arguably weaker when you consider the loss of Son Heung-min, along with Kulusevski and Maddison’s long-term injuries. Meanwhile, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City have all spent over £150million on new recruits.
It is not as if Spurs have not spent money this summer. They have converted the loans of Mathys Tel and Kevin Danso into permanent deals, signed Kota Takai and Mohammed Kudus, while Joao Palhinha is on a season-long loan from Bayern Munich. Even so, they are still desperately short of quality in key areas if they want to make a strong impression in the expanded version of the Champions League and reclaim a spot in the top six domestically. Eze and Gibbs-White are experienced Premier League players in the peak years of their careers who would have gone straight into the starting XI.
Frank has used a 4-2-3-1 and 3-5-2 formation in his first two competitive games. He had great success with Brentford last season using the former. Mikkel Damsgaard operated as the playmaker who stitched everything together, creating countless chances for Bryan Mbeumo, Kevin Schade and Yoane Wissa, who all scored at least 10 goals in the top flight.
None of the potential options in that role for Spurs are perfect. Lucas Bergvall and Pape Matar Sarr have operated there but seem more suited to the roles of box-to-box midfielders. Bergvall is supremely talented, but it would also be unfair to expect the Swedish teenager to perform at a consistently high level every week.
Kudus operates as a No 10 for Ghana. He has been thrilling on the right wing for Spurs, and previously West Ham United, using his dynamic one-v-one dribbling skills to break open defences and whip crosses into the box. He provided the assists for both of Richarlison’s goals against Burnley. Moving Kudus centrally would make them weaker out wide. Ideally, you need a creative midfielder who draws multiple opponents towards him and creates more space for the wingers like Kudus, Tel and Odobert to attack isolated full-backs.
Spurs will now have to look lower down their list of targets, but Frank made it clear in an interview with The Athletic earlier this month that it might not be the best solution. “The squad needs to be big and robust enough so we can compete in all four tournaments,” he said. “But I can’t have too many players. It’s just so difficult to keep everyone happy. It’s almost impossible. Then we want to see if we can add quality. We don’t want to sign players we don’t think can really improve the squad. I would want to wait.”
Are there any players available, at the right price, who are on the same level as Eze and Gibbs-White? Could they move Kudus into a central role and focus their money on signing a versatile forward — like Manchester City’s Savinho? Whatever the solution, it is hard not to feel as though every time Spurs appear to have made a significant move in this transfer window, a new hurdle arises.
There is still over a week left for Spurs to act, but time and options are running out. Maybe this situation is a repercussion of their delayed decision to sack Postecoglou two weeks after the season ended. Frank was then appointed six days later. By that point, rivals had already signed players and laid the groundwork for other potential moves.
As Frank admitted, it will take time for sporting director Johan Lange and head of scouting Rob Mackenzie “to understand what I’m looking for” when it comes to transfers. Acting quicker with Postecoglou and hiring Frank would have helped.
That is what it ultimately comes down to. Potentially losing out on both Eze and Gibbs-White is disappointing, but this is about so much more than one individual player. Those scenarios reinforce the idea that Spurs have failed to properly kick on following their famous victory in Bilbao.
(Top photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images)