According to ESPN Mauricio Pochettino says Tottenham are not close to any January signings and he has suggested that clubs have to pay over the odds to buy players mid-season.
The article adds how Chelsea and Liverpool have already added to their squads this month, signing Ross Barkley and Virgil van Dijk respectively, and both the Manchester clubs are vying for the signature of Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez, whom Arsene Wenger has said he will replace if he leaves.
The article adds that despite the spending among our top-six rivals, Spurs chairman Daniel Levy said on Thursday that it is “difficult” to do business in January and that message was repeated by Pochettino ahead of Saturday’s match against Everton.
“Until today, now, no-one is close to arriving in this transfer window,” Pochettino said at Friday’s Press Conference . “Maybe in [the next] five minutes, something happens! But before the press conference, nothing is close.
He added: “There are a lot of rumours in the media. I think you know the business [of football], how it is today. In three-and-a-half years at Tottenham, I saw minimum 100 names in the media. In the end, we’ve signed a few. Rumours!”
The article adds how Barkley’s contract at Everton was due to expire in the summer and he joined Chelsea for a cut-price £15 million, while Liverpool made £75m Van Dijk the most expensive defender on the planet before selling Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for £142m last week.
It goes on to say Dele Alli remains Spurs’ only January signing under Pochettino and he was immediately loaned back to MK Dons for the remainder of the 2014-15 season but our manager believes that opportunities to make shrewd January signings are limited.
“If you want to sign players [in January], there must be an opportunity and it’s difficult to find these opportunities,” Pochettino said. “Like Liverpool or Barcelona, they pay a lot of money and you cannot stop the players like Van Dijk and Coutinho from leaving.
He added: “Or it’s players that have six or four-and-a-half months until the end of their contract — like the Alexis [Sanchez] rumours. It’s always difficult in this transfer window.”
The article goes on to
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