Transfer windows are strange beasts in that they can only really be judged properly with hindsight and this latest Tottenham Hotspur one will be no different.
Spurs' 2019 summer exploits, when they spent around £150million on four players, seemed exciting at the time. Yet now a DeLorean that can hit 88mph might just be useful to go back half a decade to tell Mauricio Pochettino and the club that actually Tanguy Ndombele, Giovani Lo Celso, Ryan Sessegnon and Jack Clarke might not be the gamechangers they were hoping for.
For with Lo Celso's departure on Friday back to Real Betis in a deal football.london understands was worth 10million euros (£8.4million) plus add-ons and a sell-on clause, plus a reported option on USA international Johnny Cardoso, so all of those players from 2019 have now departed Tottenham.
Not only did that £150million outlay, plus a huge amount in wages over the years, only bring back £12million or so in transfer fees, including a sell-on clause for Clarke, but every one of the quartet ended up going back to their former clubs on loan or permanently.
It's not just 2019 though. Sergio Reguilon and Alfie Devine both were left waiting for moves on Friday night, the Spaniard permanently and the 20-year-old on loan. If they do leave in the remaining open European windows then every player signed in the summer of 2020 - another seemingly exciting window with Gareth Bale returning - will also be gone - albeit Devine would return.
Only two signings remain from the summer window of 2021, Cristian Romero and Pape Matar Sarr, although technically Bryan Gil is only out on loan at Girona. In 2022, Destiny Udogie was signed, arrived the following year and has been a success so far. The jury is still out on Richarlison, Yves Bissouma and Djed Spence.
To be perfectly honest, with that precious hindsight, Tottenham's recruitment on the whole in the past half a decade up until Ange Postecoglou's arrival in 2023 was pretty woeful. That's mostly because every year completely different types of players were being bought for completely different types of managers, creating a Frankenstein's monster of a Spurs squad.
That is what Postecoglou has had to fix since arriving in N17. That he is the first manager since 2019 to get the luxury of experiencing a second summer transfer window shows not only what a mess the club has been in, but hopefully also what a squad built in a manager's image will actually look like.
This summer's transfer exploits at Tottenham can be picked apart right now of course, before any impact positive or negative, is seen. There was a decent - not huge in today's market but decent - outlay, around £140million, but aside from a big striker signing in Dominic Solanke and the returning Timo Werner, every other new arrival was a teenager. More experience would have hastened the process for Postecoglou in delivering his usual second season silverware success but they needed to be the right players and we'll come to that later.
There are also some holes remaining in the squad, with only three natural centre-backs - as it was for much of last season - and you could argue that Ben Davies is not the ideal left-back back-up for Udogie in the Postecoglou system.
Yet in the Spurs head coach's eyes it's far closer now to the squad he wants and most importantly it's a squad that not only shows some joined-up thinking but is one built for sustained success rather than to simply temporarily plug a leak in the dam for the latest manager.
"I'm very happy. We've done a hell of a lot of work in 12 months, three windows. No doubts the squad's changed. The demographic of the squad has changed, the suitability to the football I want to play, we're much better equipped for that," he said. "There's growth in the team, absolutely. We needed to do some fairly major work 12 months ago, and since then we've gone a long way to getting the team to where we want to.
"There's still more work to be done. It was never going to happen quickly. I don't think it should happen quickly. When it does happen quickly, you're more fraught to getting it wrong. So I think we're in a good place."
He added: "The players we've brought in are already making a short-term impact and even in the longer-term, I think they're going to be really good contributors for us. I certainly think we've got a more well-rounded squad to deal with Europe, the extra games and whatever injuries we have. So yeah, I think it's been a real positive window.
"I think we've just about gone to the maximum in terms of turnover, without it affecting competitiveness. Because obviously we finished fifth last year, which was a decent outcome for us in terms of where we were. But you don't want to be doing this and finishing eighth or tenth or falling off the top half of the table. It's always a balancing act.
"But like I said, I feel we've done the maximum we could without it disrupting our competitiveness. It's not finished by any stretch. But I'm happy that we've stuck to the plan, in terms of discipline, of just bringing players who we think can contribute short-term, long-term but also synergy with the football we want to play. And not get too caught up in being in any rush to fast-track a process."
But surely there must be risk attached with undertaking such a huge turnover of a squad with Lo Celso, Oliver Skipp, Emerson Royal, Joe Rodon, Eric Dier, Ryan Sessegnon, Tanguy Ndombele, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Ivan Perisic, Japhet Tanganga, Troy Parrott, Bryan Gil, Alejo Veliz, Ashley Phillips, Manor Solomon and Dane Scarlett all leaving the club this summer either permanently or temporarily, and Reguilon and Devine still potentially joining them?
"Yeah there is, but there's risk in everything. There's no sure path in any which way you go. All I've got to rely on is my knowledge and my history in the game, that wherever I've been - and wherever I've been I've had to overhaul squads - there's a process I go through which for the most part works," said Postecoglou.
"That's what I've got to rely on. In terms of that I'm not just saying 'well let's just get rid of 10 players and bring in 10 players'. It's a bit more hopefully methodical than that. So that we try and get as many right as we can. You're never going to get them all right. I think that's the other fallacy about transfers, that you've got to have a 100% hit rate. That's impossible, because if you're bringing in every player in, and they're great, there's only 11 positions in the time.
"So there's always going to be guys who are going to miss out. If you've got a really good transfer policy, it probably means that's at about 70 or 80%, there's always going to be a 20 or 30% attrition rate just because you've got everyone right. That's the measurements I want to work with. While there is risk, I think you can mitigate risk with that process."
But what about the youthful nature of the signings, the classic Tottenham profile of signing young players who could be worth more in the future? Postecoglou was clear that he drove that process.
"Yeah. Yeah [I've been backed this summer]," he said. "It was definitely part of my plan [to sign younger players] because I think when you're trying to build or rebuild a team, you've got to...look, all managers hope they're there for the long-term, but the reality is that you don't know how long you'll be there, but I've always tried to build teams that will last over a cycle which is, you know, three, four, five years.
"It's just a natural consequence of that. You're looking at a younger demographic, a team that will grow, that will improve, that will adapt to the challenges ahead. So, like I said, when I got here it was a team that, even from a demographic point of view, looked like it was at the end of a cycle. A lot of players who had had great careers but were either ready to move on or getting to the end of it. So that combination with a different approach for me, it was definitely part of it to go younger."
Even when asked by football.london about the centre-back situation being similar to the one he was left with when Davinson Sanchez left in the later Turkish transfer window last September, Postecoglou was clear with his belief that he will only bring in players that he wants rather than stop-gaps that block the paths of others.
"No [I wasn't tempted to sign another centre-back], and I don't think we're in the same position. I think Radu is a different proposition for us, and certainly with Archie coming into the group and Djed probably not being in the plans initially, but now in I think we're in a much different position than we were last year," he said.
"We've got Ben Davies as well, obviously, who can play at centre back or at left back. But again, I mean, that's the discipline of it. Yeah, we can go out and sign another centre back, but if the right player's not there, I'm not going to do it. It's as simple as that. I'm not, I never have, I never will.
"For me, it's about getting the right people in and there wasn't an opportunity for us to bring in someone who I thought was going to add to our group, so we don't do it. We've got Ashley Phillips, we've got young Luka Vuskovic available next year. Two young centre-backs.
"I don't want to block their pathway by doing something now. It might look from the outside, like we've got another player, but if that player is not going to be suitable to what we're doing and not going to fit in, why would I bring them in and potentially block the path for somebody else."
The youngsters signed this summer are gifted ones, some of the brightest talents in the game. Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall have blown everyone away at the club - the coaching staff, Postecoglou and their older team-mates. Pape Matar Sarr said this week that Bergvall is "bound to be one of the world’s top players".
Postecoglou admitted that the duo's clear and obvious ability to be Premier League performers right now had a knock-on effect in some aspects of Tottenham's transfer window.
"I’m not surprised [in how ready they are] as you keep an open mind. You just don’t know. Lucas had been playing in Sweden. Archie played a full season in the Championship. I’ve been really impressed with both guys, more the way they have handled things and their maturity," said the Australian.
"They are 18, but it’s the way they have fitted in with the whole group, their ability to take in information and training at a certain level as the training is intense. The capacity to do that, from a physical capacity, has been really good. It didn't change anything materially in what I wanted to accomplish this transfer window.
"We may have gone a bit stronger in a different area if both of those guys didn’t work out, but it wouldn’t have been a major shift from what we have already done. Our main focus this window was around the front third, to make sure we bolstered that and I think we have got some good outcomes. Those two guys just further reinforce the areas we were okay in anyway."
One of those attacking additions is 19-year-old Wilson Odobert and Postecoglou was very clear in saying that the Frenchman was someone he had been particularly keen to bring to Tottenham all summer but he had to remain patient.
"Wilson was great last week. I was wrapped to get him. He was one I was really keen on all summer," he explained. "We had to be patient with him as the Dom Solanke deal went on a bit longer than we thought it would and we had to get that done first. He did great for us. It was his first game, as a 19-year-old, and he was exciting to watch. He will get more and more comfortable with us. I don’t mind players coming in early and us giving them exposure early as it gets it out of the way.
"You can try to protect them but when you're at a big club, get them out there and get them an understanding of what the team is like and he adapted really well."
The frustration that has built up at a club lacking in silverware, managers who stick around for very long or tangible football results over the years has understandably created a lack of patience among sections of the fanbase. It's absolutely right that the supporters should demand the best from their club and hold them accountable when it's lacking.
One mistake though would be to label Postecoglou as someone who will accept anything other than what fits his way and his system. The Australian doesn't bend on his principles, for his 28 years of coaching have been built upon exactly that core belief in what he's doing and ensuring everyone around him buys into what he's selling, not the other way around.
This transfer window was not the fix for everything he wants but it did bring much of the huge overhaul he called for. He was asked about the January window to come and admitted work has already begun on the next stage in the process because he is well aware of what else he needs.
They have to be the right pieces though to fit the Postecoglou puzzle. He's got very particular beliefs about the players he wants and who works within his system and he has pushed technical director Johan Lange and his recruitment team to create a very focused model for their data-led scouting and analysis. Postecoglou demands it as he will take responsibility for any new signing and he will not say yes to anyone he does not want.
Whether Tottenham's summer transfer window of 2024 works will be judged in the months and years ahead. There's no doubting the talent of the new signings assembled this summer, their suitability for the job or how exciting they are, but only time will allow us to look back eventually to see whether this young gifted group became Ange's angels or Postecoglou's problems.
