Plenty have been quick to point out the extent of Tottenham Hotspur's supposed "overpays" this summer, but those same folk have struggled to praise the club's work in garnering inflated fees themselves.
Sandro Tonali's £100m deal, complete just a few hours after England secured its most impressive World Cup result since the final in '66, means Spurs' total outlay has already moved beyond £230m.
Daniel Levy, watching from afar, must be enduring bouts of altitude sickness—the sort English media thought Thomas Tuchel's players would succumb to at the Azteca, stationed, in all its mythologised glory, 2,240 metres above sea level.
Our former executive chairman has already has his say, with Simon Jordan, an old friend, revealing that Levy text him to say Brighton & Hove Albion had "pulled Tottenham's pants down" by earning £52m for the sale of Jan Paul van Hecke, whose contract expires next summer.
What Levy failed to recognise amid his quip was that it's partly his doing that Spurs are forced to pay premiums this summer. Years of frugality, not necessarily on the transfer fee front, but rather wages, and a constant churn of managers contributed to the identity crisis that has imbued the club post-Mauricio Pochettino.
Levy was out the door by the time we sunk to our lowest nadir, but it was he who hired the folk greatly responsible for last season's mess. Now, the Lewis family are out to make up for lost time.
Tottenham are buying big but also selling well this summer
Yes, Tottenham have probably overpaid the odds to reinvent their midfield. Mateus Fernandes and Tonali for a combined £185m is a heck of a lot of money, yet that figure would drift towards irrelevancy if the pair help inspire Roberto De Zerbi's Lilywhites back into the Champions League in short order.
And while Spurs have undeniably spent a lot to hasten De Zerbi's rebuild, the club is recouping some of its outlay via canny sales.
Luka Vušković is obviously talented and could develop into something special on the south coast, but potentially earning more than £35m profit for a young defender who never played a competitive game for the club can't be scoffed at. Vušković wanted minutes De Zerbi wasn't going to offer him, so a sale had to occur this summer.
In addition to Vušković's £50m exit, Spurs have sold Alejo Véliz to Bahia for £7.8m and, most recently, have struck a deal with Fiorentina for Radu Drăgușin. It's a loan move with a £21.4m obligation to buy. The club will ultimately incur small losses on both Véliz and Drăgușin, yet the deals negotiated to cut the pair loose have exceeded expectations.
The reinvention of De Zerbi's frontline is the final and perhaps toughest task, with winger targets identified and a potential swoop for Bournemouth's Eli Junior Kroupi under consideration. Our seemingly strong finances suggest that more sales aren't exactly necessary, yet deals for Richarlison and Guglielmo Vicario are bound to be brokered.
There's still money to be made from a once-broken squad, that's for sure.
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