Fabrizio Romano has confirmed Tottenham Hotspur have completed the signing of Marcos Senesi on a free transfer, with former Spurs star Toby Alderweireld hugely impressed with the business done by the club so far this summer.
Having averted complete disaster on the final day of the Premier League season, the north London club have already begun the process of adding more experience to a young squad that wasn’t equipped to deal with a relegation battle – especially with so many injured stars still left on the sidelines.
Roberto De Zerbi, whose three wins and two draws in his seven games in charge steered Tottenham to survival, is actively looking to add more leadership to his ranks, with the signing of veteran former Liverpool star Andy Robertson already sealed.
And now Romano has revealed that Senesi‘s proposed free transfer switch is also done, with the Argentina international signing a four-year contract in north London.
Spurs had a deal agreed to sign the former Bournemouth star upon his exit from the south coast club, although that was conditional on them remaining in the Premier League.
However, as the silence over the proposed deal grew louder, fears over a potential Liverpool hijack for Senesi, following their appointment of Andoni Iraola, was no doubt starting to fill Tottenham fans with dread – given what happened with Morgan Gibbs-White and Eberechi Eze last summer.
They can, though, start to look forward to next season and the likelihood of a revamped backline, after conceding 57 goals in their 38 league games this past season.
With skipper Cristian Romero wanting out and lingering doubts over Micky van de Ven’s future, there is every chance that a deal for a second centre-back could even take place this week.
Brighton & Hove Albion’s Jan Paul van Hecke remains a top target for De Zerbi, having worked closely with the Netherlands international during his tome on the south coast.
An initial bid of £40million has already been knocked back by the Seagulls, with a second offer expected imminently, as Tottenham look to strike a deal before the World Cup gets underway.
Brighton are currently pushing for nearer to £50m for a player who has just one year remaining on his contract, but there is every expectation that some common ground will be found over the deal, given Van Hecke’s desire to make the move.
There is even a school of thought that Van de Ven, who built up a strong relationship with De Zerbi in those critical matches at the end of the season, could even stay and switch to left-back or even be part of a back three in a formation switch under the Italian.
The Dutchman is a regular in the full-back position at international level, although previous doubts over hamstring issues have stopped Tottenham exploring that role in a physically gruelling English campaign.
That being said, Van Hecke is the natural replacement for Romero on the right side of the Spurs central defence, while Senesi is naturally left-sided, and using Van de Ven in the full-back position would give De Zerbi some incredible weapons to utilise come set-piece time.
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Alderweireld impressed with Tottenham transfer intent
Meanwhile, former Tottenham centre-back Toby Alderweireld has hailed the arrival of Senesi and the club’s pursuit of Brighton star Van Hecke, if they can also get a deal for the Brighton star over the line.
In an interview with Football.London, the Belgian, who spent six years in north London, is impressed by the business the club has done to date.
Alderweireld said: “They [Senesi, Van Hecke] both know the Premier League. That’s good, because I think Spurs now need stability.
“They need to know the players can perform every week, week in, week out. They perform on a good level. Of course, a transfer to a new club, it’s always a bit different, but they know the Premier League and that’s very important.
“Because next season, it’s impossible that we go back to this [awful] period. So I think it’s understanding they are looking for players who are proven in the Premier League. That’s something they should do. They should have a little bit more security in that.
“I want players that the desire is there to improve. The best example is PSG. They had the biggest players. They won the French league, but never in the Champions League. They went back, sold their best players and went with people that have a fire in them.
“I can only speak from my own experience. We had people that wanted to improve – Harry Kane, Sonny, Eric Dier, Wanyama. There were players that want to improve and put the team as number one.”
He added: “So you might say ‘Spurs need to become better so we need to pay for big players’. We don’t need big players. We need players with big hearts who can improve and that’s something I really want to see. The team, the club, comes number one and that’s very important.
“I think with, for example, those two [Senesi and Van Hecke], they’re on the right direction to do the good transfers. To buy some players with a lot of potential from abroad, they need time and we don’t have the time now. We need to be there very quick to be ready and to get directly into the new season with points.
“Directly is not top three again. I understand that’s not easy, but it’s not like two points or something from [the first] five games. Then you get in the same thing as last season.”
While the Tottenham defence was often found wanting this season, the attack also laboured for much of the campaign and is another area of the pitch De Zerbi is looking to revamp.