Former Tottenham midfielder Jermaine Jenas believes that the main reason behind the Lilywhites’ poor showing this season was the poor recruitment decisions which the club made last summer.
It is fair to say that Spurs were looked at as the most likely challengers to Manchester City and Liverpool before the start of the season, having reached the Champions League final last season and investing considerably into the squad in the summer (talkSPORT).
In fact, BT’s Sport’s Unscripted, a 70-page document that tried to predict how the new term would unfold, with analysis from Opta and Squawka which backed Spurs to finish in third place this season.
Jenas admitted that he was surprised that the North Londoners were tipped to finish so high in the table.
He told Football.London: “I’m really surprised that the Unscripted document had Spurs to finish in and around third, purely and simply because it works off data and I don’t believe the data for Spurs last year was that good.
“They were conceding loads of goals, they lost the best part of 13 games and struggled away from home. It wasn’t great.
“Obviously they got to the Champions League final but the whole journey to get there was a miracle and something you definitely couldn’t have scripted.
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“It was strange to me that was where they were scripted as finishing.”
While Jenas did admit that Daniel Levy backed Mauricio Pochettino with funds in the transfer market last summer, he insisted that the club made big mistakes in their recruitment.
He added: “The thing with Tottenham is that they spent money but they were one of the teams I felt they spent it in the wrong areas to an extent.
“The sale of Kieran Trippier was just a very strange one and the dynamic they’ve lost down the right side from losing Trippier and Kyle Walker over a three-year period was a ridiculous decision in my opinion.
“On the back of last year they weren’t playing well already and I could see that it was going to be a tough year for them.
“They were linked with Paulo Dybala and Philippe Coutinho and they would have been gamechangers for Tottenham if they could have got them over the line.
“Bruno Fernandes was linked with Tottenham for a period of time and it just shows you if you go the extra mile you will get it back if you do find the quality out there you are looking for.
“Spurs decided to play it a bit safer, but they spent money bringing in Giovani Lo Celso and Tanguy Ndombele, which has not worked out, Ryan Sessegnon, which also hasn’t worked out, and Jack Clarke.
“They’ve still spent and off the top of my head that’s £150million. It’s not like Daniel Levy has not put his hands in his pockets, you’ve got to spend it in the right place.
“It was a shocking season I think personally everywhere. There weren’t many great performances, they lost Mauricio Pochettino, who in my opinion was the one who deserved that money to spend and rebuild what he created but he wasn’t given it which I felt was a bizarre decision, but it was something they decided to do.
“They are paying for it now and possibly going to pay for it for the next five years by the looks of it.”
Spurs Web Opinion
While it is easy to say in hindsight that we made errors with our recruitment last summer, Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso were two players who were highly sought after. Most Spurs fans seem to want Lo Celso over Bruno Fernandes last year and none of us could have predicted how each player would have settled into the Premier League.
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