What would suffice this season?

For the first summer in a long time, there was early optimism amongst Tottenham fans ahead of the new season. The Club swiftly cleared out many of the players that Mauricio Pochettino deemed surplus to requirements, and in the process have collected around £35 million pounds for them. To make it better, the fans have been celebrating the departures of Paulinho and co leaving White Hart Lane permanently, seemingly fed up of overpaid mercenaries who have not worked hard enough to fulfil their potential. The sense of optimism was aided by the early moves in the transfer window to improve our defence, with the key additions of Kieran Trippier, Kevin Wimmer and Toby Alderweireld. Those three already make the back-four look more balanced and structured.

However, there are still severe concerns lingering with Tottenham fans about the quality of our midfield and attack. Since Pochettino took over last summer, he is yet to buy an attacking player, instead buying one goalkeeper, six defenders and two central midfielders. One of the reasons for this was because he decided give the likes of Erik Lamela, Nacer Chadli, Andros Townsend and Roberto Soldado the opportunity to fulfil their potential in N17. Apart from Chadli, none of the others have taken that opportunity. That should have prompted Pochettino to act in the transfer market, but so far, with a month to go, there is still no sign of any new attacking players. This needs to be sorted out if the Club are to mount a serious challenge to break back into that top-four. A new centre-forward to replace the outgoing Soldado and Emmanuel Adebayor, and a new pacey winger would suffice. To add to that the Club also lack experience in the middle of the park. After the departures of Stambouli, Capoue, Paulinho and Holtby it might have been expected that a new central midfielder would have joined, but so far nothing.

Therefore, there is much to be pieced together by the recruitment team before a fair prediction for the upcoming season can be made. It would be a terrible shame to see the early summer optimism be replaced by the typical pessimism associated with the Club, due to Pochettino and Levy’s unwillingness to splash the cash. At the current moment, Tottenham are not credible challengers for the top-four, given the holes in their squad and the improvements made by the clubs above them. A few quality signings in the right positions would change all that however. The fans would love to see the Club break back in to that top-four, and that will be Levy, Pochettino and the fans primary wish, but should they fail then a cup and a 5^th place finish would still be seen as a success.