Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 23
Welcome to another day, this time it is Spurs Summer Transfer Window Day 23 with Tottenham Hotspur Blog News (THBN).
I'll jump straight into it.
Youri Tielemans
There was initial talk of Conte being interested in 25-year-old (26 next May) Leicester City central-midfielder Youri Tielemans.
We held initial discussions with him so he knows we are interested and he is interested in joining Tottenham.
The club were very clear with the Belgian international (52 caps, 5 goals, 10 assists) that we had other priorities to deal with first.
We asked him to hang on and let us deal with them first and that's why he hasn't signed for another club, despite Arsenal and Manchester United chasing him hard.
Spurs will let him know what we want to do and he will sign with us if we decide to sign him, if we decline he will then sign for another club fairly quickly.
This demonstrates the pull we now have.
Instead if us, as a UEFA Europa League side, having to wait on players to see if larger clubs wanted them, players now wait fr us to see if we want them.
In that respect things have swapped with Arsenal.
Gabriel Jesus signed with them because Tottenham and every other club he was offered to said no thanks.
Arsenal were the best of the rest that were left.
FUN FACT: Only 3 sides have qualified for the Champions League (UCL) playing on a Thursday night in 30 years, Tottenham Hotspur being one.
We are looking at Tielemans because he offers us something different. When Eriksen played with us he struggled against sides sitting back or low block sides as they call it these days.
Tielemans is better at unlocking these sides and anyone who has seen Leicester City play will know he can take a free-kick, another aspect missing from our game.
Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Manchester United have all taken an interest in him and saw him play every minute of the season just finished, one of only three players to do so.
Among all Premier League midfielders, only our own Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (780) had more touches of the ball this season, Tielemans (707).
Only Højbjerg (626) and Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson (565) have attempted more passes than Tielemans (542).
Tielemans scores long range goals and no player scored more goals than him from outside the box in the 2021 season.
My view folks, I'm not convinced we will see him in a Spurs shirt, I think we will sign someone else.
Richarlison
I have said constantly, despite Goldilocks and his colleagues misdirecting you, that Richarlison wanted Spurs and that the fee was the only stumbling block.
You'll all know by now that Chelsea, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and PSG were all in for him but he wanted Spurs.
The fact that he has turned all those clubs down to join us rather proves that, he hasn't been waiting for them to say yeah or nay, just waiting for a fee structure agreement.
Gleison Bremer and Pau Torres
Spurs are yet to agree personal terms with Bremer who has agreed to come if we can agree something.
If we can't, or if Inter come back with a suitable offer to Torino (and they are €10m apart) and payment structure apart, then wwe will turn to Pau Torres.
Torres is another player waiting on our decision. He isn't signing anything until we say whether we will be signing him or not.
There are issues we have had to discuss, such as playing time. Bremer is a starter for Torino and would be a first-choice for any Italian club.
For Tottenham he would be a part of a rotation system.
Lenglet and Dier
Consider this, because I don't think anyone else has, there is a World Cup in the middle of the season, after 15 weeks in fact.
The players at the World Cup, particularly if they play deep into the tournament, will need rest and recuperation when they return.
We therefore have to manage our centre-back three before and after.
Eric Dier and Clément Lenglet might come into their own post World Cup, while players recover, assuming neither make the England or France squads, so we will manage their game time pre-World Cup I would suggest.
It is a unique season and Spurs will need a squad big enough to rotate and provide the cover for World Cup players, our normal squad size simply wouldn't be good enough and post immediately World Cup will have a big impact on where clubs finish next season.
Clubs with thin squads may well struggle, however good their first eleven may be. To have a larger squad you have to have the income to sustain it, another reason why the income from our new stadium is so important.
Harry Winks
Things are hotting up around Harry Winks.
I reported that there were plenty of Premier League clubs interested in him, he is a homegrown player after all.
He has had discussions with Everton, but they can't afford him at the moment and we will only loan him out with an obligation to buy or if we can't get our asking price, which I believe is £25m.
Leicester City and Leeds United are the latest two to be released to the media, the Foxes as part of the discussions for Youri Tielemans.
Needing to resurrect his career Leeds might be a better bet than say Southampton or Leicester.
With Everton in such financial difficulty they may be relegation battlers again next season so you have to ask would you want Harry Winks in a relegation battle?
He'll want to be playing for a team pushing for a European place.
From what I understand Everton remain the favourites, despite the financials, a way will perhaps be found, just as we did with Dele Alli.
Djed Spence
Middlesbrough right-back Djed Spence is expected to arrive at Spurs before we head off to South Korea on a pre-season tour and training camp, as will Barcelona centre-back Clément Lenglet.
A Brazilian journalist has posted that Richarlison said yes to Spurs weeks ago, NOT as Alasdair Gold and the rest of the media were writing that he was considering his options while on holiday and would make a decision after.
Fortunately dear readers, you knew better.
The squad Spurs are assembling has depth, we are more than a first team now.
This strengthening of the squad will mean that in future we only have to maintain or improve the squad when players leave.
We have a squad that allows us to compete in all four competitions and separates us from the chasing pack, who have first XI but not the back-up squad depth.
An example of this is Youri Tielemans above who didn't miss a minute for Leicester in the Premier League last term or Declan Rice at West Ham.
Had either been injured then this would have impacted on the teams performance.
1 comment
1. There are five subs allowed next season. This will strongly favour clubs with deeper squads.
2. The World Cup will interrupt our season and heavily impact those players who are involved - especially from those countries that go beyond the group stages - and it's almost inconceivable that England won't be included in that list.
For years we've seen a great deal of effort go into the off-the-field structure & performance at Spurs. Is it lucky timing that the stadium is just coming into its own at the time when this is so important? Was this understanding a large part of what caused the board to release funds at this time rather than previously when under pressure to?
It seems we're either extraordinarily l…