Tottenham Hotspur showed by pushing Champions League winners PSG to their brink in the UEFA Supercup Final and dominating Manchester City 2-0 on Matchday 2 that they can play up with anybody in European football right now, even without an adequate summer transfer window to back new ace tactician Thomas Frank.
And while Tottenham continue to be interested in, or monitoring, or considering a number of top targets around the continent, this meme-tastic level of transfer rumor and innuendo has lended no real, tangible attacking signings since the acquisiton of Mohammed Kudus.
The signings of Kudus and Joao Palhinha this summer have been transformative already, and, if anything, they should be clueing in Daniel Levy and the rest of the Spurs organization how important it is to make smart signings like these.
According to a report from Fabrizio Romano, Tottenham are still showing interest in top Chelsea transfer target Xavi Simons, but instead of actually pushing their London rivals and trying to sign a player the Blues have been waffling on for weeks with no transfer agreement, Spurs are going to take an even more passive approach.
Tottenham would be missing out on a perfect addition
See, Romano says that Tottenham don't want to actually compete for Simons. No, no, Tottenham want to sit by and hope that Simons falls into their laps, as they are only interested in Simons if the Chelsea transfer officially collapses, which it apparently won't if the Blues can find a landing spot for Christopher Nkunku (which seems imminent at this point with AC Milan interested).
It is an unsurprisingly cowardly transfer approach from Tottenham which falls in line with all the other high-profile targets they missed out on because they didn't want to compete with PSG for Desire Doue, Manchester United for Bryan Mbeumo, Manchester City for Rayan Cherki, and countless other top targets Spurs could have, would have, and should have signed in this summer transfer window.
Simons would be the perfect addition to Tottenham. He has been one of the best players in the Bundesliga for multiple seasons with a proven European football track record. Simons can start as an 8 or a 10 with his ball progression, work rate, creativity, and even goal-scoring touch. That Tottenham could compete with Chelsea for his signing should actually be an encouragement, but not a deterrent.
Considering how badly Tottenham have been embarrassed by their other big London rivals, Arsenal, this summer transfer window, though, I guess that's just par for the course for Tottenham. They don't want to actually compete, and that is incredibly frustrating.