Article by Atour Toma
It is critical in the coming week that Spurs Chairman, Daniel Levy, supports his head coach, Mauricio Pochettino, in the transfer market and strengthens a squad which is woefully unbalanced and lacking cover in key areas.
Three games into the current campaign, Spurs are still operating with one central striker – a 22-year-old Harry Kane who, despite scoring 31 goals in all competitions last season, is struggling currently under the weight of expectation and the lack of support from his team-mates. The need for an additional striker or two to relieve the pressure on Kane, as well as provide alternative options tactically, is painfully obvious to anyone who has watched Spurs this season.
Central midfield, on the other hand, presents a totally different scenario. The likes of Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason have shown potential and flashes of brilliance on occasion, but none of them are of the sufficient standard to hold down a regular first team place in a top five Premier League side. Eric Dier is a centre back playing out of position and Dele Alli just hasn’t had enough games to make a proper appraisal.
That’s not to say they are not worth persevering with – undoubtedly they have raw talent, which nurtured in the right way, could transform them into fixtures in the team for years to come – but their potential needs to complemented with experience to guide them and take charge of games when things get tense. We do not have that anymore. Rightly or wrongly, Spurs sold off a lot of experience this summer and it has just not been replaced.
As we approach the close of the transfer window, the latest names linked to the club are Saido Berahino, Victor Wanyama and Yannick Bolasie – perhaps not game-changers but all decent players in their own right who would provide us attributes which we are currently lacking. However in a summer spent talking about black boxes and hidden gems, I can’t help but question why we have left it so late to pursue well-known Premier League players that we could (or should) have gone for two months ago. Some are saying that the selling clubs wouldn’t have sold without finding a replacement first, but it hasn’t stopped the likes of Swansea, Crystal Palace and Stoke bringing in players with Champions League experience on a much smaller budget.
Regardless of who the current transfer targets are, it is vital that Pochettino is backed by the club this week. Failing to address the above issues by the deadline threatens to perpetuate the stuttering start to the season experienced by Spurs as well as continuing the regression that has undoubtedly set in the last few years.
If Pochettino is not given the players he needs, surely it undermines the Argentine and potentially puts his own position in jeopardy. The season hasn’t started well and if this trend continues and Spurs are still in the bottom half of the table come November, the N17 natives will be restless and with good cause. Whoever is ultimately responsible for player recruitment, Pochettino will inevitably be the fall guy if results are below the standards demanded by the fans – a trend backed up by past hirings and firings under ENIC.
Only time will tell how the squad will look for our visit to Sunderland on 13th September. Either way the next seven days will define the season ahead for Spurs both on and off the pitch. I just hope Pochettino is backed and given a squad that he can compete with at the level that we expect, rather than thrown under the bus – like many are expecting – in the pursuit of conservative pragmatism.
#COYS
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Tell us something we don't know. Spurs for a few seasons now have been slowly adopting a policy of bringing in younger players either from the academy or via transfers so they have better future sell on value. This is great but we lack experience in some key positions, notably in Defensive Midfield and in attack. All of the targets we are being linked to tend to be young inexperienced players which is fine but we need some experience to balance the youth in the team.
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