Tottenham win won’t slow down transfer speculation

By Ryan Wrenn | Aug 6, 2017

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 05: Tottenham Hotspur Manager Mauricio Pochettino during the Pre-Season Friendly match between Tottenham Hotspur and Juventus on August 5, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Stephen Pond/Getty Images) /

It is difficult not to get carried away after Tottenham managed a 2-0 win at Wembley against Champions League runners-up Juventus on Saturday.

This was the four and final match of Tottenham’s pre-season run of friendlies before the Premier League starts next Sunday at Newcastle.

The previous three matches were middling at best. A 4-2 win over Paris Saint Germain was helped along in no small part due to a red card midway through the match. Truer colors were laid bare in the remaining week of their tour of the United States, which saw a 3-2 loss to Roma and a thorough 3-0 lashing at the hands of Manchester City.

Spurs then faced returning to England and facing one of the best teams in the world at a ground they appeared uniquely unsuited for.

Evidently no one told Mauricio Pochettino and his team just how much the odds were against them. Eleven minutes into the match, Harry Kane scored. Then wave after wave of Juventus attacks broke on a classically stern Spurs defense. Christian Eriksen would score a second for Spurs after the interval, and thereafter the result hardly seemed in doubt.

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It is the result Spurs needed prior to a season that feels especially uncertain. The move to Wembley while the new stadium is constructed is less than ideal. Off the pitch, club leadership appears reluctant to partake in this summer’s spending sprees. Spurs have not signed a single player with only three weeks left in the transfer window.

While it would be fair to say that Saturday’s result does undo some of the largely exaggerated hoodoo around the move to Wembley, it should not prevent the club from moving forward with bolstering the first team.

For what it’s worth, Pochettino agrees that there is still business that needs doing. In a post-match press conference covered by the Evening Standard, the Argentinian assured fans that nothing has changed after the win.

"“Our idea was, the same as before, to try to provide the team with more strength and try to sign a few players before the end of the transfer window.”"

Kieran Trippier’s injury obviously made as clear a case as possible for depth at the right-back position, but there remain other areas of the pitch that need reinforcing as well.

The fact that Pochettino felt compelled to start Moussa Sissoko — a player who just Friday was linked with a loan move to Turkey — suggests that there is a need for additional talent in midfield.

It also might trouble some fans that the only alternatives to Eric Dier, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen on the bench were Kevin Wimmer — a player who appeared to fall out of favor with Pochettino last season — and 19-year-old Academy product Cameron Carter-Vickers.

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Expect the next week to be consumed with rumors about Spurs’ hunt for another right-back. The club will be working hard to address many other holes in the first team behind the scenes however.