It used to be said of Tottenham Hotspur that they were so keen on finding value in the transfer market they would ignore players who were right under their noses.
When Spurs full-back Danny Rose famously told UK newspaper The Sun in 2017 that he wanted them to sign players he did not “have to Google”, it struck a chord with the fanbase for a reason. This was an era when the club’s transfer business was necessarily constrained by the new-stadium build, a huge billion-plus project they had to pay for themselves, with no hand-outs from anyone else.
What is so striking about Tottenham’s transfer business in this window is how commonplace it is for them to target players who require far less research.
Of course, there is still a hunt for bargains, for young unknowns who can develop and then shine at Tottenham. That was the case when Fabio Paratici was in charge of their recruitment, and even more so now Johan Lange is technical director. The recent purchase of Kota Takai from Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale — not a player many of us had heard of — is the perfect example of this type of signing. A highly-rated youngster with great data who Spurs could beat the competition to. Antonin Kinsky, the goalkeeper signed from Slavia Prague in January, was another example of a similar trend.
Go back slightly further, and the likes of Pape Matar Sarr and Lucas Bergvall, though highly regarded by those well-versed in global youth football, were hardly household names before arriving in north London. Both ended the 2024-25 season having played a huge role in the club’s Europa League triumph.
But while Tottenham continue to go for players such as Takai and Kinsky — ones you can be forgiven for needing to Google — they have also made a habit of adding players who require no introduction. Which is what we have seen this month with the arrival of Mohammed Kudus from West Ham United for £55million, and the attempt — still unresolved — to sign Morgan Gibbs-White from Nottingham Forest for £60m.
Take a step back, and this is perhaps the defining trend in Spurs’ transfer business in the past few years. And it is not the behaviour of a club shy about making their presence felt in the market.
When Rose made those famous comments eight years ago, it was not quite true that Tottenham never bought from other Premier League sides. For example, they signed Southampton midfielder Victor Wanyama in summer 2016 for £11million. He made an instant impact in elevating the level of the team. Which is what you want when you buy an established player from a team in the same division. And a few weeks after Rose’s intervention, Spurs signed Fernando Llorente from Swansea City for £12m, although in truth the Spanish striker was always a high-level Plan B during his time at the club rather than a guaranteed starter.
After Llorente, however, Tottenham did not sign another player from a fellow Premier League side for another three years. (When Ryan Sessegnon and Jack Clarke were bought in summer 2019, from Fulham and Leeds United respectively, those sides were in the second-tier Championship.) It was not until 2020, when they added Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg from Southampton and Matt Doherty of Wolves, that they started to buy from their own division again. And neither of those deals involved a big fee either, with each player costing roughly £15million.
It was only really in summer 2022 that Spurs started to behave like they routinely do now.
Remember that this was after one full season of post-pandemic football. Antonio Conte wanted some more experienced additions to his team after finishing in fourth and sealing Champions League football. It was no secret that Everton needed to sell Richarlison before the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) reporting deadline of June 30. Spurs managed to get him for a deal of £50million, plus a potential £10m more in add-ons. It was one of the biggest deals in Tottenham’s history, and a clear change in policy. Later that summer, they signed Yves Bissouma from Brighton & Hove Albion for £25m.
The next summer, when Ange Postecoglou came in as manager, Spurs went again to sign established top-flight players for significant fees. Leicester City had just been relegated, but Tottenham had been tracking their midfielder James Maddison for years. They persuaded him to join and bought him for £40million in late June. At the end of the window, they targeted Brennan Johnson of Nottingham Forest, another club who needed to sell for PSR reasons, and landed him for £47.5m.
In Postecoglou’s second (and last) summer, Spurs broke their transfer record with another big Premier League purchase. Bournemouth were not in quite the same situation as Everton in 2022 or Forest in 2023, but Dominic Solanke had two years left on his deal, and it was their last chance to make money on him. Tottenham picked him up for an initial £55million, with another £10m in potential add-ons.
Put those four deals together — Richarlison, Maddison, Johnson and Solanke — and it establishes a clear pattern. Spurs are not afraid to pay fees that used to be far beyond them for proven Premier League talent. Especially when they know the selling club, for whatever reason, are not in much of a position to resist.
While it may be tempting to suggest these players (and Bissouma) have sometimes flattered to deceive at Tottenham, it is worth remembering all bar Maddison started that Europa League final, and all played a part in that long-overdue trophy win.
Remember too that there is precedent for a strategy like this.
Liverpool — the Premier League’s best case study in how to spend money smartly — built some of the foundations for their recent successes on the signings of players who had been relegated from the Premier League: Georginio Wijnaldum from Newcastle United in 2016, Andy Robertson from Hull City the year after. Sadio Mane — who Spurs also wanted — came in from mid-table Southampton.
But given what we have seen from Tottenham in the past three years, it should perhaps be no surprise that they started their summer by targeting Kudus, given how valuable that money would be to West Ham in the market. And even the move for Gibbs-White, if unexpected, was still consistent with that strategy. Of course, they certainly might have added more established players than they did last summer, and the struggles of the team to compete on multiple fronts can be attributed in part to the fact that Solanke was their only experienced signing.
And transfer fees are not the same thing as wage bills, and it is in salary terms that Spurs have lost ground relative to their rivals in recent years. Even though the club has spent more on fees than ever before, some observers have pointed to the reduced wage bill as being at least as important.
Maybe this window is an attempt to make up for all that, to give new head coach Thomas Frank the tools to compete on multiple fronts. And to give the fans players they do not need to look up in advance.
(Top photo of Gibbs-White and Kudus; Alex Broadway/Getty Images)