Tottenham Hotspur sporting director Johan Lange is obviously not the most popular person in North London, except maybe among Arsenal fans (including potentially Vinai Venkatesham), but even his biggest detractors in the Spurs fan base have to admit that there is one thing about him that deserves the highest of praise: his talent ID.
Spurs have a great collection of young talent on their hands, and with Igor Tudor actually competently leading the ship and getting more out of them than Thomas Frank did, we are starting to see the extent of some of the players Lange brought in for cheaper than what they are worth now.
Lucas Bergvall was obviously a huge hit from the get for for Lange, but now Archie Gray is looking at least as brilliant of a signing in the center midfield. And even though Lange totally botched helping Tottenham Hotspur in the short term by signing the underwhelming Conor Gallagher - and nobody else - in the January transfer window, the signing of the future Souza has been even better than advertised as a left back - and even in the other random positions Tudor is throwing him in.
Johan Lange has a great eye for talent
Imagine if Tottenham were able to have a sporting director a step above Fabio Paratici who could sign established players and broker smart deals with well constructed contracts and innovative transfer fee packages that could compete with the other elites of Europe. If they could have a better traditional sporting director and then let Lange focus on leading a scouting network that could find more players like these guys, Spurs would be a formidable force in English football.
As it stands, Tottenham have to take a whole lot of issues with Lange in order to obtain the positive of his talent identification. But that positive is huge for a club like Spurs that does need to cycle in young talents in order to build a team that could potentially compete at the highest level of the Champions League in the future.
But in terms of long term growth strategy, either Lange needs to somehow significantly improve his managerial eye when it comes to hirings, his ability to sign established stars, and his financial nous or Spurs are going to have to hire someone who is fit as an elite sporting director. Lange should get his flowers for finding top talents for Spurs, but it's a shame he cannot be as adept in the other facets.