Thomas Frank’s first transfer window at Tottenham is not going according to plan.
The Dane often credited the backroom staff at Brentford for working extremely well in unison toward a common goal, which helped the Bees overachieve year on year.
Frank is quickly finding out what the Spurs supporters could all have predicted: that he was not going to find the same harmony and efficiency under Daniel Levy.
Tottenham are already on the back foot, and have the added insult of potentially seeing Eberechi Eze choose to join bitter rivals Arsenal after already seemingly losing out on Bryan Mbeumo.
Selling players has been equally challenging, with recent reports offering up another twist to their summer dealings.
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Frank has to counterbalance potential incomings with the sale of players within the overinflated squad already present at Tottenham.
The Londoners only released four players at the end of last season, and are labouring to move on players like Richarlison and Bryan Gil, despite their careers in N17 effectively being over.
One player that still lingers on their books is Alejo Véliz, who had reportedly garnered interest from clubs in his home country, Argentina.
However, according to Football London (27 June), Spurs are yet to receive a formal bid for the 21-year-old, who spent last year on loan at Spanish side Espanyol, scoring just four goals.
The striker arrived in North London in 2023 for a reported £13million, but has only made a total of eight appearances for the Lilywhites, who are desperate to sell him this summer.
However, Spurs have a history of being unable to move out-of-favour players on, resorting to either accepting a huge loss or, in extreme cases such as Tanguy Ndombele, terminating contracts.
Tottenham are still learning from their mistakes
Tottenham’s scattergun approach to previous transfer windows, especially with Fabio Paratici at the helm, led to a mix of both excellent and very disappointing signings.
The North London club used traditional methods of talent identification to scout their players, but often did not factor in the physicality and mental fortitude required to compete in the Premier League.
Levy is still learning from his mistakes the hard way, and employed Johan Lange to fix some issues.
Recent signings prove that a data-led strategy might be the way forward, and with the addition of Frank, the likelihood of complete misses in the transfer market are surely to decrease.