Tottenham: 3 biggest mistakes by Spurs in recent transfer windows

Allowing Christian Eriksen’s deal to run down

Tottenham’s mistake wasn’t selling Christian Eriksen — he’d made his decision to leave. The mistake was allowing his contract to run down as far as it did, giving Spurs no leverage in negotiations and having to accept an offer far lower than Eriksen’s value.

All summer long, the question was whether Eriksen would be sold. But as he only had a year remaining on his contract, Spurs weren’t able to land big money for their star player. Instead, Inter Milan got a bargain by signing Eriksen for less than £17 million in January.

Allowing Eriksen’s deal to almost reach its end was a move we often see from the other North London club, but not Tottenham. A couple of years earlier, Spurs should’ve offered Eriksen a new multi-year deal. If he turned down every offer, that would’ve been the sign to sell him. If Tottenham had made Eriksen available two years earlier, while Spurs were flying high in the Premier League, they may have been able to make £80 million for him.

Selling Eriksen wouldn’t have been a popular decision, but if he had his heart set on a move elsewhere, the opportunity to ask for a big transfer fee was much earlier than Spurs eventually sold him. Instead, Tottenham lost a key player for a bargain price. And that’s bad business.