"We've won a European trophy. It's not enough. It's what we haven't done that's more important. We need to win the league. We want to win the Premier League. We want to win the Champions League. We want to win."
Those words from Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy this month in essentially explaining the sacking of Ange Postecoglou and his own desires for the club set the tone, whether he liked it or not, for what was expected this summer from Spurs in building a team for a season in which he expects to compete on multiple fronts.
So of course when the next signing of a new player happens to be a £5million deal for a 20-year-old centre-back from Japanese side Kawasaki Frontale, who is not going to be well known to the everyday Premier League fan, it's going to be met by a certain kind of reaction - mostly AI-created images of Danny Rose using Google.
For football is all about timing, especially when it comes to the aesthetics of transfers, and had Spurs wrapped up the kind of big money deal they need to do this summer to compete with the elite in the Champions League and ensure Levy's statement was not just wishful thinking, then the announcement of Kota Takai after that would have been mostly accepted as a smart piece of business.
However, as the first transfer - not counting the £30million deal to make Mathys Tel's loan move permanent - the reaction was always going to be along the lines of 'same old Tottenham, always looking for a bargain', while the big boys like Liverpool and Manchester City splash the cash on plenty of huge signings.
Had Takai been the third or fourth signing of the summer then the narrative would have been more along the lines that it's the kind of well-scouted and data-confirmed move from Johan Lange's side, kept quiet as usual until it was advanced, that the likes of Brighton, Bournemouth and Thomas Frank's old club Brentford would have been lauded for, especially if the 20-year-old becomes the player Spurs expect him to.
For while Takai falls into the exciting young player category available at a great price - albeit a J.League record fee - like those for Lucas Bergvall, Destiny Udogie and Pape Matar Sarr, he's actually an older, more experienced player than all three of them were when their deals were agreed.
Some have compared this to the move for South Korean teenager Yang Min-hyeok, who arrived last summer and has not played for Spurs yet, enjoying a learning loan at QPR in the second half of the season. It's not. Yang had just broken through with his first full season in the K-League when Tottenham made their move. The youngster was always envisioned as a raw attacker who would not be involved in first team matches immediately.
Takai is different and the expectations are that he will join up next month with the first team and be a part of the squad. He will certainly need an adaptation period like all foreign players, but the centre-back, who will turn 21 in September, has already been exposed to a lot of senior football and is one of the rising stars of Japanese football.
The 6ft 3ins defender has played 78 times already for Kawasaki, scoring four times from the back and laying on one assist. He has played 57 times in the J1 League and played a big role in his club winning the Japanese Super Cup last year and was named the J.League's Young Player of the Year.
He has also got plenty of experience in the AFC Champions League as an integral part of the Kawasaki side that reached the final last month. Along the way, Takai earned plenty of plaudits for the 3-2 semi-final victory away against an Al-Nassr team boasting Cristiano Ronaldo, Sadio Mane and Jhon Duran among its attacking options.
The young centre-back mostly kept the trio quiet, shackling Ronaldo for long periods, and Al-Nassr were only able to score from two shots from distance that the Kawasaki goalkeeper made a mess of.
Tottenham have tracked Takai for some time but this performance, which showed composure, strength in the air, an ability to read the game and that he is comfortable bringing the ball out of defence began to elevate his profile at clubs across Europe as it showed the kind of attacking talent he could compete with.
He now has international experience as well, having made his Japan debut just after his 20th birthday and has appeared in four World Cup qualifiers so far. It would have been more but for an adductor injury suffered in October last year. It's worth noting that many in the Japan squad ply their trade in European football, so for Takai to break into it as a young J.League player is a nod towards the belief in him. He also played at the Olympics with his country last year, reaching the quarter-finals.
That's not to say that Takai has been signed as a commercial venture - a reductive label often placed on signings from outside Europe or South America. Players like Son Heung-min only come along once in a lifetime. The Spurs captain has been called 'the Beckham of Asia' and is one of the most recognisable players on the planet and it's because he's been one of the top players in the game for years.
Also what Tottenham make from Son is not as much as people think with the player smart enough to tie up most of his image rights in Asia himself over the years. What they would make commercially from players like Takai or Yang at this point of time is a fraction of what they would make from signing a big name Premier League player. That's not to rule out either becoming superstars, but few from anywhere in the world are ever going to reach Son's level of popularity in the game.
There's also certainly an irony to Spurs signing a player from the J.League just after sacking a manager who won the title there and was keen to take players from Asia to his clubs. Takai was born in Yokohama, where Postecoglou had so much success, and the Australian would no doubt have had input at some stage of the process in recent months but it is Frank who gave the move the green light and will benefit from a centre-back who is right-footed but can play on either side of a central pairing.
Takai will arrive next month to join in with pre-season training. There is a gap in the J.League calendar after July 6 for a fortnight that would seem a logical break to make the switch and have the defender available for the tour to Hong Kong and South Korea, to ensure he bonds quickly with his new team-mates. He will be fit and sharp being midway through his season, which continues on Wednesday as Kawasaki host Niigata.
Tiredness should not be an issue as, barring a remarkable pre-season or injuries galore, Takai will not be starting Premier League games in the early weeks but will be pushing himself into the mix as the months pass.
The main issue for Tottenham right now is the sheer number of centre-backs they have with Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Kevin Danso, the injured Radu Dragusin, Ben Davies and the younger Ashley Phillips and Alfie Dorrington on the books and now Takai as well as a big defensive prospect in Luka Vuskovic, who arrives next month from Hajduk Split.
Spurs have been stockpiling in the centre-back department and Takai's move will not only have a knock-effect for many of those younger defenders but will also only further complicate the club's club-trained issues with their Champions League squad.
To put it simply without diving into all of the rules and regulations, Tottenham currently need to fit 31 senior players into 22 spots in their European squad, even before they make any further signings. It's clear a large number of players need to leave the club this summer.
Spurs fans want to see exciting new arrivals though, especially after Levy's grand declarations. They want someone like Eberechi Eze, who Tottenham maintain a strong interest in but currently have not moved for yet, and the north London club do need to make a team-changing statement this summer to ensure that winning a trophy was not just a blip and that they are not underprepared for their return to the table alongside Europe's best.
There are plenty of smart decisions to make in the transfer window at all price levels. For instance, Christian Norgaard is someone Frank adores as a person, as a leader and as a player and if Spurs were to try to sign the Dane, also being eyed up by Arsenal, despite his new two-year deal signed in March and the fact that he is 31, he could be a crucial experienced figure in an otherwise young side and able to carry out Frank's instructions to the letter.
This summer is all about the club needing to back up Levy's big statement, both the actions and words, but it also about building cleverly and strongly for a new head coach who will need help in the toughest club competition on the planet. Takai is a much smarter deal than people will give it credit for right now, but it needs to be part of an overall summer strategy rather than viewed in isolation.