Before we begin wading into the rights and wrongs of Spurs’ transfer business, it’s always worth a peek at the past for some historical perspective, which has to be especially pertinent when discussing the lesser of the two transfer windows.
Tottenham has rarely spent heavily in January, and if we look over the past decade, we get quite a picture of ENIC Brand shopping. In the 2010/11 season, Spurs brought in Bongani Khumalo and Steven Pienaar.
2011/12 saw Louis Saha and Ryan Nelson arrive at The Lane.
2012/13 Spurs brought in Zeki Fryers and Lewis Holtby.
Dele Alli landed in 2014/15.
Fast-forward to 2017/18, for the next incomer, who was Lucas Moura.
2019/20 saw Gedson Fernandes and Steven Bergwijn arrive in N17.
Any seasons, not listed, were one where the chequebook stayed under lock and key.
Above, we see a summary that shows that Tottenham hasn’t tended to do much business in the winter and that Conte himself has hardly been a prolific shopper at other clubs. In this window, Spurs brought in Dejan Kulusevski on loan from Juventus, whose loan is costing €10million.
Should certain targets be hit, the option to sign the player permanently is €35million.
Rordrigo Bentancur also arrived from Juventus, for a reported £15.8million.
Therefore, if we add the total amount payable of our January activity, we get €60.8million. Only the value is better than the total because if Kulu doesn’t work out, we can return him.
€60.8million beats Antonio Conte’s biggest winter spend, which was whilst he was at Chelsea.
Furthermore, Levy bit the bullet and moved on the deadwood, that many fans had been crying out for. Jack Clarke went to Sunderland on loan, Tanguy Ndombele was returned to Lyon on loan, Bryan Gil was loaned to Valencia, Giovani Lo Celso was loaned to Villarreal and Dele Alli is now an Everton, player.
Sure, Levy could’ve spent £300million, but that wouldn’t have been a reasonable expectation, nor would have correcting all his past mistakes in one January window…