Tottenham emphasize competition rather than overhaul
By Ryan Wrenn
As the transfer window enters its final month, Tottenham stand alone as the only club in the Premier League without any incoming players thus far — and for good reason.
Throughout Tottenham’s tour of the United States last week, both players and fans extolled the virtues of a quiet summer and the benefits of growth over rebuilding.
None of which stopped anyone from getting overly excited on Tuesday when Mauricio Pochettino openly admitted that Spurs will need to spend this summer if they are to keep up with their rivals.
"“How have Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea and different clubs tried to improve their season? Bringing players and trying to put more pressure on their star players, their key players – and for us we need to do that too.“Right, now [I hear] we need to win some trophies, no? That is good, the pressure. I think it’s important to understand now that we need to be clever how we manage the expectation and how we need to put pressure on our own players.“We understand that Dele Alli, Harry Kane, Christian Eriksen, [Eric] Dier, [Toby] Alderweireld are really good players. They want to win but need to feel the pressure a little bit to improve every season.“If there’s no competition in behind it’s normal to drop your motivation, it’s normal to drop everything that you do. And then it’s difficult to win.”"
One might be tempted to assume Pochettino’s soliloquy here is just fluff, a overlong justification for Tottenham belated throwing down real money this summer.
That would be a slight error however. Pochettino is not making a case here for Spurs to emulate, say, Manchester City or Manchester United. Unlike those clubs, Spurs have no need to dramatically overhaul significant portions of their starting XI. But for the departure of Kyle Walker, the team that earned second place last season is entirely intact and ready to compete once again.
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Rather, Pochettino is emphasizing the need for depth — and not just to cover for injuries or turns of form. Every player at every position should hear the footsteps of the man just below him on the roster. Complacency is nourished best when a player knows that he is the first, best and last option available.
Which means that fans expectations should be tempered, at least a little bit. Tottenham will not be looking for players to send to the front line, at least not yet. Rather, it will be another summer of Vincent Janssen-esque players — though hopefully ones that aren’t quite like, you know, Vincent Janssen.
What fans should hope for is someone closer to Victor Wanyama — perhaps the embodiment of the type of player that Pochettino is talking about here.
The Kenyan was brought in relatively cheaply to, in part, serve as competition for Eric Dier. Within two months he proved adept enough in Pochettino’s system to supplant Dier from defensive midfield entirely. Far from casting Dier out though, it freed the England international up to play as part of a revamped defensive framework that, if anything, exploited his skillset even better than midfield.
It’s notable, too, that Wanyama is the only player bought in last summer’s (relatively) considerable transfer splurge to actually play meaningful minutes this past season. His success — and the failure of Janssen and Moussa Sissoko — inform Tottenham’s business this summer more than the sums paid out by their rivals.
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The next month, if Pochettino can be taken at his word, will be consumed more with surgical strikes than gluttony. What players are brought in won’t replace existing members of the first team, but rather supplement them and — hopefully — make them better.
Far from undercutting that joyous praise of Tottenham’s purity, such business only further prove that Pochettino and Daniel Levy retain a level of sobriety almost entirely lost in the league this summer. They will make moves, yes, but only the right ones.