Summer transfer window could be make or break for Spurs

Time Stamp: February 21, 2022 2:45 AM

Angel Di Maria’s words in 2014 cut Tottenham deep. They revealed how, despite years of attempting to become a member of the elite, they have never quite managed to bridge the gap.

It was in the aftermath of Madrid’s tenth Champions League triumph, the coveted ‘Decima’. Di Maria had just topped a fantastic transitional season under Carlo Ancelotti, who deployed him as a central midfielder rather than an orthodox winger in order to accommodate Gareth Bale, with a man of the match performance in the final. The Argentine had a case to say he was the club’s best player that season, but there was always a feeling that he didn’t quite suit president Florentino Perez’s ‘Galactico’ aesthetic, and he was soon linked with a move away.

He’d been touted as a makeweight in the Bale deal with Spurs a year earlier, and the Luka Modric one before that. Tottenham have long been a club consistently linked with unwanted players from elite clubs, but in one interview with Spanish daily newspaper Marca, he made it clear, perhaps unintentionally, just what players thought about them.

“It hurts when you’re always doing your best for your club and then you hear that you might be going to Tottenham,” he said.

“I spoke with the manager last summer. I wanted to stay and he wanted me to stay as well. He told me that he counted on me and it was up to me from then on.

“I have grown a lot under Ancelotti,” he continued. “He got the best out of me. Things have gone well and I made the right decision to stay.”

Since then, Spurs have gone close in the Premier League and Champions League, perhaps proving themselves as more serious candidates for a place at the top table. But to date, that spell, under the management of Mauricio Pochettino, was their peak, the level they are aspiring to return to now under current boss Antonio Conte. The board and, in particular, chairman Daniel Levy, are under pressure to change the perception put forth by Di Maria eight years ago. Conte’s presence helps that, but there is a reason it was such a shock that he agreed to join the club in the first place; his success is reliant on getting the players he wants and being backed in suitable conditions, and he has a track record of making things difficult if they don’t arrive.

The January transfer window, Conte’s first opportunity to strengthen, ended well, with two new signings, but was fraught with difficulty. Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski, two talented players at a good age, joined from Juventus, although that proved again that they could only do business for the players bigger clubs had no place for. A pursuit of Wolves’ Adama Traore failed, and talk has grown that Conte is not entirely happy, having laid bare the state of play in his squad already.

There is a lot of sense in picking up squad players from clubs like Real Madrid and Juventus because, more often than not, they will be better than what most other clubs have. Kulusevski lacks pace but is a technically gifted player who could thrive in a Conte system, particularly if wing-backs are being used to create width; he may have more success playing slightly narrower. Bentancur’s career has always been on an upward trajectory since he moved to Turin from Boca Juniors; he was a key man at the World Cup in Russia for Uruguay and has proven invaluable at solidifying the midfield, but he has had a tough time. Whether the Premier League is suited to him remains to be seen.

But despite the discourse surrounding Conte, he has made the existing Spurs squad better. Steven Bergwijn is an example of a player who doesn’t appear to have much of a future at the club still contributing to the cause, with his brace against Leicester last month. He has instantly given the club and squad an identity again, for the first time since Pochettino, and his incredibly high standards have helped the levels rise immeasurably. Nuno Espírito Santo barely got a chance but Spurs were ruthless once Conte made it clear he would take over; that is the sort of mentality and swift approach that gives them the best chance of establishing themselves at the level their manager will want to be.

Understandably, Spurs’ January window hasn’t eased frustrations. Not enough was done beyond a couple of quick and, potentially, clever deals towards at the very end. Conte has proven himself to be more about the team than the individuals, but Spurs need to break out of the cycle of being known as the club who will take expensive cast offs. Only a swift, meaningful start to the summer will blow the cobwebs away from the tough early dealings of the Conte era.

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