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Tottenham’s Missed Targets Recently

By Alexander Balano

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Tottenham have suffered three losses despite three signings.

Timing played a huge part in this and it showed even after Daniel Levy’s words of wanting to ensure that the club starts early during the transfer window. This doesn’t mean that Levy was lying — far from it — it had more to do with a defense that was so bad Mauricio Pochettino was forced to upgrade it first.

Well now after a week-and-a-half, the defense looks to be patched up pretty nicely, with other changes taking effect at the midfield position.

So what’s next to help bolster the club?

Obviously the striker spot needs a massive change, over at winger it needs some depth just like the midfield does. The Lilywhites were linked to three players, two were midfielders and one was a winger.

Unfortunately Tottenham missed out on signing one of their three potential targets.

Yohan Cabaye

The Independent reports Crystal Palace have signed the French international.

Tottenham were briefly mentioned as a possible landing spot for the 29-year-old but nothing really materialized. Gut reaction being, they were busy looking for defensive reinforcements along with other targets.

Seeing Yohan Cabaye rejoin his former manager in Alan Pardew isn’t surprising but at £12.8 million, that is a very doable fee that Tottenham could have hijacked.

Cabaye brings a wealth of experience — past Premier League experience — a championship pedigree from his short time with PSG and depth. It was a win-win situation but alas, he’s already gone. If the price was just a bit too high, fair enough, so here’s another midfielder that Tottenham had a chance to sign.

Fabian Delph

The Daily Mail have reported that Manchester City won his signature.

After it was discovered that the English international had a release clause in his contract worth only £8 million a couple of clubs were initially interested, one of them happened to be Tottenham.

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But Manchester City were the ones who pursued this deal the most and got themselves a 25-year-old midfielder who provides leadership to a club. While Vincent Kompany is the current captain at Man City, another leader helps.

Another young player with plenty of Premier League experience, plays a position of need and is a leader on the pitch. Somehow, Fabian Delph slipped through Pochettino and Levy’s hands.

Combined they would only cost Tottenham £20.8 million which, interestingly enough, is roughly the same amount that would be spent on Everton’s James McCarthy.

Lastly, the one big player who left Tottenham’s grasp.

Yannick Ferreira Carrasco

TalkSPORT and ESPN FC report that the Belgian international joined Atlético Madrid.

For a visual aid, Kristof Terreur put out these tweets.

Safe to say that he’s officially gone and Tottenham missed out on another winger.

All that’s left on the market that still has some name recognition is Xherdan Shaqiri, which apparently Stoke City have pulled out on their supposed accepted bid. It had to do with Shaqiri not responding to the Potter’s deadline per the Telegraph.

There aren’t many options left for Tottenham to consider.

They’re left with having to keep both Andros Townsend and Aaron Lennon for depth or choose to sell them and use the money on other players, but go into the next season with no one to back up Nacer Chadli and Érik Lamela. Alternatively, signing Xherdan Shaqiri would be a good pickup, assuming Érik Lamela isn’t used as a makeweight for Inter Milan in a player swap.

Whatever the direction is now for Tottenham, both Mauricio Pochettino and Daniel Levy have their work cut out for them. They moved quickly to sell their deadwood and signed key defenders to improve the defense. But in that same time frame, they’ve lost a host of potential targets that they were linked to in one form or another.

Tottenham may have to pick up their pace even more.

Next: Fernando Llorente to Join Tottenham?

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