Tottenham Hotspur have missed out on their fair share of transfer targets this summer, with the likes of Angel Gomes moving for free to Marseille and Ligue 1 breakout star Rayan Cherki making a bold move to Manchester City while dazzling in front of an international audience at the Nations League.
Spurs put themselves behind the eight ball with their handling of Ange Postecoglou, though they have ended up in a good spot despite their own best efforts. Not only have they hired a stronger tactical manager in Thomas Frank, but they've also landed two of the bigger names in the Premier League in right winger Mohammed Kudus and, very likely, Nottingham Forest attacking midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White.
Tottenham need to sign center midfielders to anchor the entire team, though, and they've been striking out left and right on these targets. Their easiest signing at the position wasn't the free agent Gomes; it was Real Betis standout Johnny Cardoso, who had a 25 million euro clause that was supposed to take him to Tottenham as part of the Giovani Lo Celso transfer last year.
Tottenham left with egg on their face
Instead, Cardoso bucked Tottenham, ducked the release clause, and made it clear that he wanted to stay in La Liga with a move to Atletico Madrid, dishonoring what was essentially a handshake agreement. Of course, the fault is on Daniel Levy, and Tottenham have egg on their face for not actually securing Cardoso's signature a year ago, but the decision still left Spurs supporters fuming at the USMNT defensive midfielder.
Now, Fabrizio Romano has dropped an, "official, confirmed" on the heads of Tottenham fans, as Cardoso will indeed be headed to Atletico to join forces with the likes of Conor Gallagher in the new-look Atletico Madrid midfield, which just lost Rodrigo De Paul to Lionel Messi and Friends in Miami.
Cardoso officially moving to Atleti comes as no surprise to Tottenham fans, who saw this move coming for a month. But it's the final confirmation of just how badly the Lo Celso deal turned out for Spurs and a reminder that Spurs still have some work to do on the transfer market before they can have the pull befitting a club of their magnitude, stature, fan following, and, yes, status as reigning Europa League champions.
Tottenham need to focus on signing defensive and box-to-box midfielders this summer, and somewhere deep down, Spurs fans are hoping that they'll sign at least one player significantly better than Cardoso.