Tottenham Hotspur may not be in the Premier League next season, and while that will severely impact the kinds of players they can sign in the summer transfer window, Spurs are already being linked to some notable names on the market.
Here are three options who are being proposed to Spurs as bargain upgrades if they stay up in the English top flight, but these players are the exact kinds of transfers Tottenham need to avoid if they want to really improve long term.
Liverpool LB Andrew Robertson
Tottenham tried to sign Andrew Robertson pretty aggressively during the winter transfer window, but Liverpool were unable to get Kostas Tsimikas back from his loan to Roma so the deal never went through. But the Robertson rumors have been revived in case Spurs stay up, and there is apparently a verbal agreement between Robertson and Spurs on a move.
But Robertson is not better than Destiny Udogie or Souza either in the short or long term. Udogie is a bit frustrating since he's rarely ever healthy, but he is an incredible left back. And Souza has already shown for Spurs since signing this winter that he is a real talent. Robertson, meanwhile, is finished, and he's only cheap if you look exclusively at him as a free agent and not the wages he would command.
Bournemouth CB Marcos Senesi
Another free agent Premier League defender who is persistently linked to Tottenham Hotspur, Marcos Senesi is having a tremendous season for Bournemouth, but that's unlikely to translate to a bigger club like Spurs.
Tottenham are already realizing the problem with much more talented center backs in Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven that ball winning and aggression are not everything. Senesi is great at winning possession and is top for a team that plays like Bournemouth with low expectations, but his marking and consistency just won't be good enough for Spurs. He could have flop written all over him.
Leeds United GK Karl Darlow
Karl Darlow is such a bizarre transfer link to Tottenham. Like Andrew Robertson and Marcos Senesi, Darlow is a free agent this summer. Unlike those two, he would be dirt cheap on wages. But he is also 35, and even for a goalkeeper, that is old. He has little future value to Tottenham, and Spurs would be better off signing some prospect in goal to compete with Antonin Kinsky if they go down or replace Guglielmo Vicario with a better keeper like Lucas Chevalier or Bart Verbruggen.
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